Forest High School
by Caisha12
Summary: The Sonic gang are taken on a ride that can only be described as one thing: High School. High School is an adventure, whether it's calm or completely crazy. At times it can be incredibly stereotyped. Forest High is no different. All or nothing. Yes, this story does include my OC, Anne.
1. New Beginnings

**Forest High: Chapter 1; New Beginnings**

I woke with a start on the first day of school. Correction, the first day of High School. And believe me, I was not looking forward to the day. New school, new friends, new everything. Besides of switching to a whole new school, my mother and I had moved halfway across the country to a big city called Mobius. I groaned and snuggled down further into my blankets. When I look over at my clock, it reads the time 6:00. My blankets were just so inviting I didn't even want to get into the new outfit for school.

"Beth Ann, get down here dressed and bathed in 30 minutes or else you won't get breakfast!" My mother yelled up the stairs. I pouted, even though I knew she couldn't see it. Ripping off the blankets, I sat up. Grumbling all the way to the bathroom, which was only a few feet, I nearly took a shower in my tank top and shorts. When I was done with my shower, I did my hair. As I stood in front of the mirror, an indigo hedgehog with hazel eyes was staring back at me. The brush traveled through my quills easily because they were wet.

Within 20 minutes I was downstairs and dressed in my outfit for the day. A black tee with jean shorts. My mother was in the kitchen, navy quills in a tight bun. She was making pancakes. The table was set for 2, which reminded me Dad was at work today. The Kitchen was small, but that didn't mean Mom didn't find a good use for everything. There was wooden cupboards, granite countertops, and stainless steel fridge and freezer combo. The oven and dishwasher was stainless steel, too.

"Morning, Mom!" I say brightly. Mom just smiles at me, which means she's focused on not burning the pancakes. There are already some cakes on the plate at the seat I usually take. I sit down and grab the Syrup, then gently pour a little on top of the four pancakes. I dig in.

" Are you nervous, Anny? I know how this must be hard on you, with the school and moving. All that Jazz," Mom addresses me as my nickname. If you must know, I am an only child, and my parents moved around a lot. Dad used to be in the Army, but now he works for a company. I'm not entirely sure of the name.

The School I was to attend was Forest High School, since it was in range. We lived so close, in fact, that I could walk to school. But it would take a while, so instead I would ride the bus. My bus stop crossed Mercedes Street and Lexus Street. Brilliant, huh? While I ate, Mom came and sat down with the warmer. Steam was rising lazily from it. The plate was soon empty and I reached for more.

7:05 was out the door, so I grabbed my heavy bag full of School supplies and out the door I went, teeth brushed and flats on. I walked down the sidewalk of Mercedes, the street I lived on, until I crossed the road to the corner of Lexus. Already standing there was a bright pink hedgehog and a white bat. When they saw me, they looked startled at first, until the hedgehog shook her head and muttered something to the effect of "Where are my manners."

It was a beautiful Summer Morning, the wind softly whispering through the surrounding trees. The air was warm, but not uncomfortably so. The sun was out and smiling down on us when the hedgehog introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Amy. You are?"

"I'm Bethany," I replied, smiling. I can't help it. I'm happy. "So, uh, Amy, when does the bus get here?"

"I wouldn't know. I'm a freshman, so yeah. Rouge knows though!" Amy smiled and wound her fingers together. Her bracelets clacked.

"I'm a freshman, too!" I looked over at the curvaceous bat. She had on a tank top showered with hearts and leggings that fit into white boots. Her lips were tainted with red lip gloss and topaz eye shadow dusted her eyelids. She smiled at me while her big ears twitched slightly.

"It gets here around 7:10, usually, but we might be getting a new driver this year." She was older than me, maybe a year or two. Her voice was thick and could have been seductive. Amy was nearly jumping up and down. Her shirt had one sleeve blue and the other red. She was wearing a skirt that was rose red (pun intended) with a thick white stripe across the waistband. Rouge as the bat and Amy was the hedgehog, which was ok for remembering, I guess. I'm bad with names.

"Rouge, do you think Sonic might be on the bus? Do you think he'll talk to me?"

"Amy, you know Sonic gets claustrophobic, especially around lots of people, why would he take the bus?"

"Um, Rouge, what grade are you in?" I ask, slightly confused at their conversation. Who was Sonic?

"Oh." She popped her gum." I'm a junior this year, hun."

There was a screeching sound as the bus turned the corner. The big yellow vehicle was nearly packed full of students. Forest High starts at 7:30, so I assumed we were the last stop before the school. The double black doors opened with a slight squeak, revealing a green crocodile with a music necklace and headphones. He was grinning with his long snout. Rouge hopped on and motioned for us to follow. Amy nearly squealed, I could tell from how she bit her bottom lip.

"'Sup, Rouge!" a red echidna called from the back. She giggled and went to join them in the very back of the bus. I personally like to sit in the front, but the only seat not completely full was one with a green hedgehog with real messy hair. He turned to me and grinned sort of cutely, sort of crooked. His deep red vest looked nice with his blue jeans, especially in contrast with his green hair. He wore a black shirt underneath with red sneakers. "You can sit here, if you want…"

He seemed nice. Maybe Forest High wasn't so bad after all.

**A/N Who can guess who the green hedgehog is? Don't worry, he's a canon character. This is my first fanfiction ever. Hope you enjoyed. Please Review and tell me what you think.**


	2. New School, New Friends, New everything

**Forest High; Chapter 2: New School, New Friends, New Everything**

"Thanks," I tell him, nervously sitting down next to him. Around his neck he wore a medallion circle. The cord fastened around his neck. He smiled and introduced himself.

"I'm Manic. You new?" He asked, looking right at me with those emerald eyes. From the middle I could hear Amy call "First day!" His green spiked bangs were hanging down in front of his face. In his vest pockets were two sticks with bulbs at the end. Drum sticks.

"I'm Bethany, but you can call me Anne. Yah, I'm New. How are freshman treated at your school?" I asked. All of the sudden, the bus stopped and a brown chipmunk with sapphire eyes got on, blue shirt slightly ruffled, black jeans still clean. Her auburn hair was done up in a ponytail. She ran quickly to her seat, row 14, and plopped down next to a bunny with a country accent.

"You're a freshman then? That's nice fishy. That there is Sally Acorn, my brother fancies her." He paused and shifted in his seat. "She's controlling. We had a science project together last year, I did all the work and she was bossing me around the whole time. And why I'm telling you this, I don't know. I just met you for heaven's sake!"

"Uh..." I begin, then start giggling. "You're weird. So you think you could show me where the front office is? Schedule, and all." I hoped he would agree. For some reason, I did not want his presence to go away. I guess he made me feel safer. He was, in fact, my new friend. He nodded, quills shaking. He smirked as the bus pulled in front to drop us off.

Manic took my hand, which made my cheeks burn, and led me off the bus, through the doors and into a hallway. He turned right and entered some more doors into a crowded room with a flustered receptionist. One angry student was yelling "Where is the muffins." Manic swaggered over to the desk and put the hand that wasn't holding mine on it.

"Excuse me, Ms. Aqua, I was hoping to get this young lady's schedule," he said casually to the turqoise fox behind the computer. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Name, please."

"Bethany Anne Nurminy," I answer when Manic looks expectantly at me. She tip-taps on her computer and rolls over to the printer, taking a piece of paper as it comes out. She hands it to me and says." Have a wonderful First day, Bethany!"

Manic craned his neck to look at my schedule.

"Hey! You have first period with me. Cool! Let me show you where it is!" He exclaimed. 1st period was choir. I had no idea he could sing. He led me along in the crowded hallway to a large room with stands and chairs. The board read "Welcome to Choir!" A purple chameleon was sitting at the piano. He looked bored. My bus driver burst in.

"Hello, Mr. Vector!" shouted a couple students. I looked around the room. There was a wall with the sulfage, going from DO to high DO. Over toward the left side of the room were tables that held backpacks and supplies. Boys were on the left of the risers, while girls were on the right. Some of them giggled as Manic smiled at them. Man, this dude was popular.

"Welcome to Choir!" Mr. Vector shouted. "Please be seated. We'll get to the parts tomorrow. Until then, you can sit wherever you want. I will pass out you're binders and pencils in a moment." Manic lead me to the middle of the risers, where the boys and girls meet. He sat down and beckoned for me to sit next to him.

"You're real easy to talk to. I guess I like that. Ann, do you know if you're a Soprano or an Alto?"

"I think I'm a Soprano," I reply. He turned his head to the instructor. Mr. Vector was passing out papers. He handed one to a blue hedgehog in the tenors. The blue hedgehog turned his head and smiled. He sped through the warm-up remarkably fast. Back in the girls' section, the chameleon, , they called him, was passing a warm-up to Amy and a magenta hedgehog.

"I'll introduce you to my sibs later," Manic said, glancing where my eyes were pointing. Mr. Vector was back up at the front, and he called for our attention.

"This is the choir classroom. You will put your things over there on that table, then you are supposed to do your warm-up in the first 5 minutes of class. Afterward, we will warm up vocally. Understand?"

There was a chorus of "Yes, sir" and then Mr. Vector continued to show us around the room. Behind us was a clock, then there was a big screen we would sight read from until we got books. I was just getting excited when the bell rang. Signaling second period. Manic stole another look at my schedule. His green eyes locked on mine. I smiled despite myself.

"I know where that is!" He exclaimed excitedly. After he led me to my history classroom, he said "See ya at Lunch!"

The teacher was Mrs. Aqua, a sea-green fox. We learned about classroom procedures. The rest of the period went pretty fast. Third was reading and fourth was math. After that was lunch. It was weird, everybody separated into groups. There was one table that was obviously cheerleaders, then there was one with a bunch of guys. Across the lunchroom was a table with a bunch of computer guys, on their phone. The cafeteria itself was huge, with three lunch lines and a drink machine. The linoleum floor was covered in scratches and the like, but no food, yet.

"Anny!" Manic called over from a nearly full table. He patted a seat next to him. " I saved you a seat." I started to walk over only to be stopped by an orange monkey. She wore a spaghetti strap shirt with a short skirt. Her necklace was an amethyst gem with a silver casing. On her tail was a bow. She glared at me.

"You're new aren't you? Well, I can tell you this. Don't get comfortable. Manic is mine!" She laughed and walked away. She sat down at the cheerleader table. I went shakily over to Manic's table and sat down. He looked unfazed by the confrontation. Sally ran over and sat next to the blue hedgehog.

"That's Sonic, my older brother, by like 2 minutes." he gestured toward the blue hedgehog. Then he pointed toward the magenta hedgehog. "That's Sonia, my little sister, again, by like 2 minutes." He smiled. "That's Knuckles and that's Shadow," he pointed to a red echidna and then a black hedgehog. Knuckles smiled and waved.  
"Well, sounds like you've put a spell on Manic over here," Knuckles commented. "He's been blabbing' non-stop about the pretty new girl."

I giggled and blushed furiously as I sat down.

**There you go! Henrique XL7, to answer your question, I will portray Sally as I perceived her during Sat AM. Please tell me what you think! **

**If you have an OC you want to be in this story, let me know and I'll try my best to portray them correctly.**

**Cya next time!**


	3. Development

**Forest High School Chapter 3; Development**

After lunch was 5th period Science, and I was having a blast. I had the same class as Amy. She was always smiling and laughing. And, guess what, first thing I learned in that class was about her hero, Sonic the Hedgehog. 6th period was P.E. and, since I have noodles for arms, I didn't enjoy the class too much. 7th was very interesting. My French teacher was actually French. 8th period was a combined class, really. Forest High did this thing where at the end of the day, they have a combined class in a classroom for people who are in different grades to socialize. Manic, of course, was there waiting for me. The orange monkey however, caught me in the chin before I could even smile at him.

"Courtney, was that really necessary?" A squirrel asked. The squirrel was very immodest, let's leave it at that. Courtney slammed me into the wall, then punched me again, this time in the stomach. By now everyone around us was shouting "FIGHT!"

I dropped to the ground and swiped my leg under her to knock her off her feet, she landed with a thud. I got up, then started to back away toward the only safety I knew at this school, my friends. She got up, growling. Her eyes were flaming with anger.

"How dare you!" she yelled at me." Do you know what I can do?"

"Nothing."

The voice was calm, then Shadow walked out of the shadows (pun intended). He looked from Courtney to me, then back to Courtney. "You can do nothing to her. This is school ground and school property, you are in serious trouble for even starting the fight."

Where were the Chaperones? Shouldn't there be teachers in this period? Gosh. Another mobian came over, this time a bear, and he helped Courtney up. She dusted off her skirt and huffed, then strode away. Someone from behind me lifted my up from under my arms.

"Gosh, you're light. So much for no big scenes on your first day," said Manic as I started to dust off my clothes. Great, she had loosened one of my buns. I took out the ponytail holder and started to redo it, twisting and then looping it into a tight bun, then I fastened the holder in place. Rouge came up behind me and lifted my two quill buns just slightly. She giggled and said "Your hair is adorable."

***Insert line here***

Cream kicked a rock, then winced because she had stubbed her toe on it. Then, she got angry at the rock and picked it up and threw as hard as she could. She was on her way home from her first day of 7th grade, and her mother, Vanilla, was still at work. Cream didn't know why her mama wanted to work at the High School, with all the scary students. Then, she found herself thinking of Amy, who was now at that scary high school and would be for the next four years.

Across the street there were five ten-year-old boys playing with a soccer ball and joking about a deathly disease that had spiked recently. Annoyed, cream stomped over to the boys and started yelling at them that they should not joke about that and that death was very serious thing. Personally, Cream had never experienced a death before, but she still knew it was nothing to joke about. The boys looked taken aback, then smiled big and wide, starting to joke about something else. Cream walked away, fuming, and as soon as she was out of ear shot they started joking disease again.

When she got home, she thumped up the small flight of stairs and into her little room. She flopped on her bed and stared at the sheets angrily. The pale peach comforter just sat there. Soon, she was calm enough to sit up and look around her room. The bed was simple, the sheets a pale pink and peach color (they are different). Her dresser was white and her desk was, too. The pencil cup was full of cute pencils and fancy pens. The square rug was hot pink with white hearts.

Cream didn't like the way people talked and laughed like she wasn't there. Cream wasn't the talkative type, so maybe they don't notice her, but that didn't make any less important that she was. What agitated Cream the most was how she heard everything they said and so much gossip that wasn't true. It especially made her mad when two friends suddenly stopped because of stupid communication problems.

Cheese nuzzled her cheek and she sighed. She wasn't the type to stay mad. She walked over to her desk, cheese flying in her wake, and she opened her diary. She started the entry.

_Dear Diary,_

_Today was the first day of school, and I was looking forward to it, since__7__th__ and 8__th__ grade have P.E. and recess for 5 minutes together. However, I did not have a good day. I did get to see Tails in the hallway, he was inside a classroom for recess and P.E. was split. All the __7th __ graders were supposed to find a kindergarten (did you know that was from German origin?) reading buddy, and I didn't know anyone. Plus, Mama isn't home yet and I am home alone. Amy is now at High School, so I can't hang out with her until Forest High is over, and then Mama will be home and it will be time for Dinner!_

_Sincerily, _

_Cream_

***Insert Line here* **

The bell rang, a long hard dong. Amy hated that bell. It was so annoying. The first Day was just great. Amy had enjoyed the whole day up to 8th period, when Beth Ann got in a fight. What did Courtney have against her anyway? Anne didn't seem like the type to get in a fight.

Well, anyway, Amy was walking home, her pink sneakers scuffing against the stone. She was walking home alone because Rouge was at practice. So, she wouldn't be home until around 5. Amy really didn't want to make dinner, but since Daniel, her older brother, was at work. That meant Amy was making dinner. For 3, because, yes, Amy Rose's parents died when she was very young. Five, in fact. She walked up the walkway trying to remember how they looked clearly.

She dug her key into the door and unlocked it. The metallic click sounded softly. She opened the door and went inside the dark house, closing the door and locking it behind her. Trudging down the left hallway, she threw her backpack on the floor while she got changed into a raggedy old t-shirt and jeans. She grabbed her paintbrush and went outside. She eyed her paints lovingly. Amy loved to paint. She loved to be able to express herself this way.

"I'm home!" Rouge called excitedly. "Guess who asked me to the skating rink on Friday?"

"Knucklehead the Echidna," Amy guessed while stroking her brush down a branch of a tree, the paint leaving a trail of brown behind it. The wood was looking textured now as Amy worked on it. "What time is it?"

"5:02," she replied. Then stopped. "Knucklehead?"

"Yep."

***Insert Line here***

"How was your first day, daughter?" was the first thing I heard when I walked in the door. My house was roomy in the front and sorted in the back. The main area was a large room with couches and chairs. Then there were stairs that led to the second floor, where my bedroom was. My dad was sitting in a big chair at his desk.

"Just Peachy, Father," I replied, playing along. He stood up and walked over to me. Then pulled me into a hug. My father was a big hedgehog. Sometimes I teased him that he was fat, but he didn't get offended. He always smelled fresh and like his deodorant, which smelled like Daddy.

"Anne, what's up?" Daddy looked me in the eye and kissed my forehead. He was wearing a big shirt and jeans. The shirt was gray.

"A monkey picked a fight with me today. Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"Is Mom home?"

He nodded and told me to go put my things up and change. I thumped up the stairs and went into my room. First I swung off my backpack. Then, I changed into sweatpants and a tank top. I slipped a sweater over that though. Otherwise, I would be immodest.

There was a loud knock and Daddy answered it. "Hello, may I help you?"

At the door was a cream rabbit with lovely ears that were very large. She had the deepest chocolate brown eyes and hair you ever saw. Next to her was Amy.

"Hello, sir. We are here to ask Anne if she wants to come and play some soccor," Amy said, brightly smiling. I ran to the door. I looked at Dad with pleading in my eyes. He smiled and nodded. I shrieked with delight and ran upstairs to put a proper shirt on before I raced out the door.

***Insert Line here***

Shadow walked into the alley. There was a female wolf cowering in fear. A growling dog was going through the contents of a very large grey and silver purse with a gun. _How clever, _Shadow thought. _Using the cover of night to steal and rob._

"Hey, didn't your momma ever teach you not to take things that aren't yours?" Shadow was striding right toward the dog when he looked up. The dog pulled the gun on shadow and shot, but missed. Shadow ducked and spun to sucker punch the robber in the face. The dog kicked at Shadow, but the latter was too fast as he hit the dog so hard, he fell over. The dog sprung back up and managed a punch to Shadows eye. Shadow stumbled back for a second, eye stinging, before he went in and knocked the dog upside the head, leaving him unconscious. Shadow glided home, leaving the wolf to call the police and pick up her things. In the morning, Shadow would find he had a black eye.

**I am planning something, but I need OC's. So if you want one in this story, I'll gladly put yours in. Just please give me a bio, and correct me if I make a mistake. Ill give you credit.**

**Please tell me what you think! I appreciate Reviews!**


	4. Just Getting to Know

**Just Getting to Know**

Cream woke up to the cute little "chao, chao," of Cheese the Chao. She mumbled something that was lost in the pillow. Breathing out, she sat up and sprinted to the bathroom. She was about to turn on the hot water when Vanilla called up the stairs.

"Good Morning Dear! Time to get up and start your day!" Vanilla's sweet voice drifted up. Cream smiled.

Then came Amy, grumbling down the hallway, still half asleep. The pink hedgehog turned into the guest bathroom and doubled over into the bathtub, lazily reaching out to turn the knob. She blinked at examined it more closely.

"Man, it's like a spaceship up in here! I don't know these controls!" Amy shouted. Cream laughed as she went to go help her friend.

***Insert line here***

"What if he doesn't like the fact I found out his last name, Cream?" Amy asked her friend as they walked down to the Forest High bus stop. Anne, the hedgehog who had tried, but failed hilariously, to play soccer yesterday, was already there. Cream glanced down to make sure her shirt wasn't backwards for the umpteenth time that morning. But the hot pink garment with glasses and mustaches was as it should be, along with the jean shorts and small sneakers she was wearing. Amy looked great, too, sporting a similar color cap-sleeve shirt and a skirt made of denim. Her shoes were pink sneakers that latched with snap buttons over the laces. Amy's book bag was slung over her shoulder. She had made that back pack when she was in the 8th grade.

Rouge was there, too. The white flirtatious bat sporting an athletic outfit.

"Hello!" shouted Cream happily.

Anne turned and smiled, purple tie-die shirt swinging, her jean capris hugging her legs. The flats she wore were silver and had two slits that ended an inch in. The indigo hedgehog opened her arms and said with a brilliant smile," Hug?"

"Sure." Cream was instantly squished a little and released. Cream guessed the hug didn't last as long as one of Amy's hugs because the blue-violet hedgehog barely knew her. After all, they had only met yesterday.

Rouge started pacing, bag swinging. She anxiously looked at her watch again and again.

"The bus should've been here 2 minutes ago. It's not like Mr. Vector to be late. It should be here in the next one, girls."

As if on cue, the yellow vehicle screeched annoyingly as it stopped at the corner. Amy quickly turned to Cream and hugged the petite rabbit quickly.

"Thanks for the sleepover, Cream! I had a lot of fun!" she said excitedly. "Maybe we can get together again soon!" Cream sighed as she walked down the little street to _her_ bus stop. Amy, Rouge, and Anne got right on the bus as it screeched again, turning out of sight.

Cream expected the bus for Pine Middle School would arrive at any moment as well. Yes, both schools started around the same time, so buses came very close together chronologically. She sighed yet again and politely greeted Spring, a dark green echidna.

***Line***

I walked into the School behind Manic, who went dashing to the library. As hard as I tried to keep up, I eventually caught up with him just as he rushed in the door at the same speed. Amy and Rouge were following, Amy giggling and Rouge smirking, Sonic and Sally were already in the library, waiting for us. A red gold echidna looking thing was lounged over the cream couch. Like, all over it. The librarian, a rabbit wearing a deep burgundy skirt, a velvet vest, and beige and brown shoes, just glanced in his direction and he immediately righted himself. Sitting Correctly, that is.

"Sorry Ms. Vanilla," he said, grinning sheepishly in his tattered jeans and t-shirt that said "Eat, Game, Sleep, Repeat."

Everyone plopped down in the now empty space on the couch and chairs, talking quietly. I glanced Courtney among the shelves, but she didn't notice me. She was too busy talking with that brown bear from yesterday. Amy and I shared a deep green couch.

"I really want to do something that will change the look on the world. Something Spontaneous," Amy was telling me. She is such a sweet heart. She dreams big, too. "I want to change the world!" Is always something that's on her mind. That and, well, Sonic.

Knuckles came in and greeted the red-gold echidna like bros. They laughed as soon as they saw one another.

"Shade the Guardian!" exclaimed Knuckles. "How ya been, man?"

"Ok," said Shade, making a face of disgust.

"What's up? Is it that school started, or is it Citrus?"

At this suggestion, Shade's muzzle turned a cherry red. Obviously, Shade liked this "Citrus".

"Hey Anne," Manic said quietly as he elbowed me to extra get my attention. I turned. "If quizzes are quizzical, than what are tests?"

I thought for a split second of my reply, but I stopped myself as I opened my mouth.

"Oh," I started. "You're bad!" MY face started to burn and I wondered if my blush was noticeable. Then I thought, Of course it's noticeable, your face is as white as a sheet of printer paper. What on earth? Why would he say something like that?

The bell rand before I could reply. Everybody stood and went their separate ways. Manic, Sonic, Sonia and I went to choir, while Knuckles and Rouge headed off to athletics (eh, physical work).

Mr. Vector greeted us with hand-shakes, but I was simply appalled when the girl in front of me just laid her hand on his, wiggled ever so gently, and walked in. That's not how you do a hand-shake. No, sir.

I walked right up to him, grasped his hand firmly and sent a wave of motion swiftly up his arm. He wasn't expecting a firm handshake like that, so his said appendage literally shook. See what I did there? I gave him a funny smile to apologize if needed, then walked in and up to the middle of the fourth riser. I plopped in the chair and crossed my legs. If we were actual sections, I would be at the very end of the altos.

"Today we will be splitting you students into sections," Mr. Vector started as he waltzed in."Espio will split the girls and I will split the guys, any questions?" When nobody raised their hand, he smiled and started to play to the boys on the piano.

***Line means Time Skip, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA***

Come lunch Time, everyone was gathered at the table. All the gang had brought a home lunch, which I thought was weird, considering Manic had expressed his love of chocolate milk the day before on the ride home. Sonic was already eating a hot dog with, was that chili? I didn't even realize I looked puzzled until Sonic said "Chili Dogs, best food on the planet."

"Gives him real bad gas though," Sonia cut in, holding her nose and laughing.

"Ha-ha-ha" Sonic chided. "Must I spill the thing about the lemons? My, my Sonia, I hoped it wouldn't some to this." There was his cocky attitude again. Then came a tap on my shoulder. I would've turned but they spoke.

"Hey, can I have a word, fishy?" Freshman are called that. Since Amy and I were the only freshman in the group, we found that out pretty quick.

"Hello, Courtney," I started calmly. Sonic and Sonia continued to argue on the other side of the table. Manic was very happily sipping his chocolate milk. When I say happily, I mean glowing with freaking glee. Rouge and Knuckles were bartering over peanut butter sandwiches. Sally and Amy were in the midst of a TV show on one of their phones. If Shadow wasn't staring intently at me and Courtney, I would of been scared outta my sneakers.

Now see here, I am not weak, ok? I'm just not particularly strong in the arm department. So, yes, an orange monkey with visible triceps would scare, scratch that, intimidate me a little, I have strong lungs, for what that's worth.

I stood up and walked about 10 feet away, tailing Courtney. The diva turned and stared me straight in the eye.

"How would you feel about joining the cheerleading team?" she asked. Wait. Wait. Wait. What? The chick that had so obviously showed her undeniable hate toward me yesterday wants me to join her squad? What? I was baffled. Flip, I was bemused (look it up, you might learn something).

"Uh…"

"Oh, come on! Just say yes. You either do or you don't want to," she said nonchalantly. Her words said one thing, her tone said another.

"Ok." She lit up, sorta. "I'll think about it. Can I go eat my lunch now?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." She awkwardly headed back to her clique.

"Manic," Amy said from behind me. "Don't eat Anne's sandwich."

Alarmed, I turned abruptly and saw a certain hedgehog trying ever so sneakily to steal my PB&amp;J.

"I wasn't going to eat it. Just, you know, consume and digest it, obviously," he said, matter-of-factly, as he slid the plastic bag over to the rest of my lunch, nearly knocking over _my_ chocolate milk.

"Watch it," I warned him.

The cafeteria was a very large and circular room. There were, like, twenty-seven tables for students to sit. About twelve were round, the rest were rectangular. The benches formed a hexagon around said round tables. They were just frames for the others. Sonia, Manic, and I shared one of those benches at our round table. On the walls hung large thick shapes of all kinds covered with metal gratings. They differed from the school colors. Black, forest green (so original), and gold. The stage, however, had a mural on the back wall. It portrayed an alcove with a stream and tree nymphs (I kid you not, tree nymphs) dancing with satyrs (fauns, whatever) and wearing laurels. The picture was so interesting I didn't even notice every once in a while, Manic would slowly scoot closer, until finally and comically, he slid into my field of view.

I crunched on a chip. He wiggled his eyebrows like someone would do the wave with their arms. Oh my gosh, why?

"Bro, football!" Shade shouted, tearing me away from the painting. Knuckles, Sonic, Manic, Shade, and a fox that came over fist bumped.

"Football!" Sonic agreed, hitting Shade upside the head. Manic and the guys were trying out for the football team. I turned to the fox. She was female. Her fur was sort of creamy, sort of not. Her ears had small tufts of fur on the ends. Her face was thinner than most, and made her look older.

"Yo, Vixon, Cream is having a sleepover on Friday, wanna come?" Amy asked her. The fox nodded.

"Oh, Yeah."

"Anne, will you come?" Amy begged.

"I'll ask my parents."

**SO Sorry for the long wait people. I just got caught up with stuff. Again, if you want you OC in here, just tell me stats and everything. Vixon is my sister's oc, while shade is my brother's. Let's get this clear. Shade is a guardian, not an echidna. Shade the Echidna has nothing to do with this.**

**With the OC's needed thing, you expect me to come up with a whole high school full of students?**

**MAKE IT A GREAT DAY! PEACE!**


	5. Gotta Get Down on Friday

**Gotta Get Down on Friday**

"HELLO MOBOTROPALIS!" The TV shouted. The news reporter was a male cat with red scratches all up his arm. We were all over at Cream's house tonight. My parents said I could stay until 10:00, then I had to come home. Rouge would get here in a few minutes via Knuckles. They did, after all, have a date.

"Tonight, three houses were robbed and the vigilantes are still unknown. The houses in question were robbed down on Nifty Avenue. Be on the lookout for these felons."

"I'm bored," groaned Amy as she looked at the TV upside down. She was lounging on the couch, but her quills were almost touching the floor.

_Ding Dong_

"Rouge is here!" Three girls cried at once.

***Line***

"Thanks for dropping me off, Knuckie," Rouge said, leaning toward the muscly echidna. She backed him up until his back met the porch column. She had a gym bag slung over her shoulder, for her things, and she was sporting a spaghetti strap with geometric shapes. The echidna's muzzle turned pink as she leaned in even closer.

"Um, Rouge," the embarrassed one muttered. "Never kiss after the first date, right?"

This made the diamond bat stop in her tracks. She blinked slowly, her blue eye shadow shimmering in the setting sun. Then, she seriously pouted.

"Oh, Knuckie, I really thought this wasn't our first date," she winked as she said this. "Remember that one time?" Yes, he did, and the thought made his muzzle burn even more. But, to her amazement, he grasped her hips and dipped her, smashing his lips against hers. She kissed back just as passionately. Rouge had to admit, he was quite good. In fact, she didn't even want to go to the sleepover anymore. But Knuckles pulled away.

"Gotta go," he said breathlessly, still as red as the afternoon sun. "Not bad for my first kiss, huh?"

This left the white bat in shock as the muscled echidna ran away into the dark. He was way too good at it to be new to it. She turned and rang the doorbell, a completely real smile on her face.

***Line***

"Knuckles?"

"Bro, why is your mouth covered in lip gloss? And why are your cheeks so red?" Shade was lounging on the Mach's couch. Yes, Sonic's last name is Mach. Get over it.

"Ready?" Sonic asked before Shade the dummy could put two and two together. The blue hero slid down the railing, wearing nothing but black. Shirt, pants, shoes, even socks. All black. "I hear 3 criminals are the target toady." He smiled.

"Before we do anything," Manic interrupted, "We have to get a team as well as code names. You guys, we need to be serious about this. Any suggestion for team names?"

"Team Sonic!"

"Team Knuckles!" Guess who said that?

"The Dark Gems," Shadow suggested. "With the names of different rocks and gems as code names." He smirked. Shadow knew his was by far the best idea, but when everyone looked at him, he shrugged. "Guess Rouge is rubbing off on me."

"Ok, any objections?" Manic asked, when no one spoke up, he continued. "Then, now that that's settled, code names are next."

"OOOOHHHH! I CALL DIAMOND!" Sonic was fast to say.

**See what I did there?**

The blue blur grinned ear to ear. Knuckles was next to shout a name. "RUBY!" He instantly grinned and a feeling of pride rippled through him. He actually knew the name of a stone! He was so darn proud of himself.

"Let me write this all down," Manic said before more names were shouted. He jumped off of the red couch and dashed to his room. He grabbed a pencil and a sheet of notebook paper from his desk and game running down the stairs. "I call Emerald!"

At the end of the 15 minute mark, here were the names.

Sonic-Diamond

Manic-Emerald

Knuckles-Ruby

Shadow-Opal ("Black Opal if you please")

Shade-Obsidian

Tails-Quartz

"Alright, GUYS! Let's go kick some booty!" Shade exclaimed, grabbing one of the many walkie-talkies on the chocolate coffee table (that's the color of the wood, it's not actually chocolate).

"Hold on," Tails whispered. Even with the lights on, he still felt secretive. "Someone's-" he pointed to the closed closet door. Shadow crawled over to it and gently laid a hand on the knob, before throwing the door open. Sonia tumbled out, sniffing with a red nose and a blanket.

"Sonia," whined Manic, crossing his arms and jutting out his bottom lip. "This was supposed to be a secret meeting!"

Sniffing, Sonia wiped her nose and stated simply, "I want in." The magenta hedgehog sneezed into her pink blanket. "Next time, though. Because I have a cold, but otherwise, I'll tell if you don't let me.

"Go back to bed, Sonia! You're sick!" Sonic urged. Sister sneezed, then stumbled back to bed, coughing.

"To Nifty Street!' Shade said enthusiastically again. Manic was pretty sure it was Nifty Avenue, but Shade can be a pain in the butt. He was almost as stupid as Knuckles sometimes. He was practically jumping up and down. The guardian let slip crystals that fell to the ground. That's just what happens.

The two minutes that followed consisted of single mother Aleena Mach fussing over all six boys, making sure they all had coats and were being careful tonight.

The night was cool and dark. Streets were empty as the sextuplet traveled to hunt down the thieves, each having a walkie-talkie on their belt.

***Code name time***

Emerald had spotted a figure lurking in the bushes at the cull-de-sack near the end of Nifty Avenue. So he radioed his fellow members of Dark Gem. As usual, Obsidian was pumped. Opal found a path leading northwest into the forest. Diamond claimed the path didn't even exists. He was quite impatient. Then Opal had seen, or rather heard, something in the bushes, which had in turn leaped out and sprinted away. Now, they were giving chase.

"Guys," Diamond whined, "I swear I can catch him!" They had been running for a while, but s_ome_ people thought it was a good idea to split up in a dark forest at night.

"For the last time, S- I mean, Diamond, we are not separating!" Opal was running at the head of the group effortlessly. His long strides were easily catching up with the thief (Opal and Diamond had agreed on that one, why else would he be running from them with a lamp on his back?), who was now stumbling, until three figures dispersed from the lone one.

Angry, the black hedgehog exclaimed "Emerald and Ruby, take left, Diamond and Obsidian, right. Quartz, come with me. You're the only one I can slightly stand." The instructions were given rapidly, but everyone understood. The two-tailed kitsune lifted himself off the ground with his twirling to follow Opal as the hedgehog quickened his pace.

"Who died and made you king?" Diamond grumbled so only Emerald could hear. The brothers would have laughed together if Ruby had not pulled Emerald away through the trees.

Emerald and Ruby veered after the leftmost one. The figure clad in black quickened their pace and dove into a valley. Emerald jumped, gasping, over a fallen tree. Ruby went under. The lush vegetation whipped their faces in the cool summer night. As they neared the figure, the sound of a nearby creek reached their ears. The thief suddenly stopped then turned, kicking the green hedgehog in the stomach so hard, he went flying into said creek. A splash was heard, but Emerald did not come back up. Ruby growled angrily as he charged the figure, trying to punch in several places with his huge fists. The stranger dodged, causing Ruby to lose his balance. Instead the figure whacked him.

Pain stung Ruby's jaw as the thief hit it hard with his heel. While fighting, Ruby noticed Emerald floating in the creek, unconscious. He must have hit his head. The echidna growled at the stranger again, leaping at the stranger. Ruby smashed the thief's face in. Soon, the upperhand had cut off the stranger's air supply, and he slumped to the ground. He rushed to pick-up Emerald's fallen walkie-talkie and said "Ruby reporting in. Thief is out. So is Emerald." With that, Ruby started to the creek, digging Emerald out of it. He set the unconscious hedgehog on the ground and put a massive finger under his nose. "Barely Breathing!" Ruby exclaimed over the talkie and continued, "Shadow, we have to get him to the hospital!"

"It's Opal! Don't blow our cover!" came the reply from Quartz's com. "On our way." That was Quartz himself.

Ruby heaved Emerald on his shoulders and carried him to dry (well, it used to be) ground. The cold, clear, and crisp water was still rushing past. At any other time, Ruby would've loved to dive in, gulp some, then float for a while, but right now, he had to focus. They were on a mission.

"Dang Flabbit, what's your position?" Diamond asked. "That's my brother you moron! Couldn't you at least get that right?"

"Chill, man," said Obsidian in the background.

"By the Creek. Dude, it's not like he's dead. Goodness Gracious!"

Opal came crashing through the bushes with Quartz in his wake. The black hedgehog looked angrily calm, as always. Emerald was breathing in ragged gasps now. The thief groaned slightly and stirred. Ruby took no notice of this, but Opal was upon the thief before he had even taken a step. The Ultimate Life Form then slammed his head against a rock and Quartz laid down the thief they had gone after next to him.

Obsidian then charged through the brush and undergrowth, whooping in excitement. The red-gold guardian slammed the third next to the others and Diamond was with his brother in seconds.

"We have to get out of here!"

***Line means view change***

"Bye!" Amy shouted at me from the doorway. The sakura hedgehog waved frantically at me. A quarter to ten and she still wasn't satisfied with the way I played truth or dare.

"See you on Monday!" Cream called as I continued to walk down the street. The girls soon retreated back inside, leaving me alone on a dark street in the middle of the night. This fact sent shivers up my spine and I couldn't help but remember. Remember that there were bad people, however hard my parents tried to protect me from them. Oh, I'm such a dummy. Stupid, Stupid Stu-

My thoughts were interrupted by a series of shouting as six figures emerged from the woods. They were shouting as they laid one unconscious person on the ground. The right hand side of the road was soon filled with shouts and hollers. I couldn't make out what they said until I got much closer. They looked distressed.

_Eh, what the heck? I'll help,_

"Are you guys ok?" I yelled while I ran. I froze when I recognized the person lying on the ground. Manic was dripping water, his quills drooping and dark. There was a trickle of blood from the head wound. They were calling his name, trying to make him do something.

"BRO! WAKE UP MANIC! COME ON, DUDE!" What Morons.

"Can't you pick him up, Shade?"

"He's heavier than a freaking boulder!"

"Boys!" I cried sternly. "What the heck happened?" They all stopped arguing, noticing me at last. "Doesn't Matter. Shade and Knuckles, you could pick him up together you daft ninnies!" Then I shoved my way to Manic. I was relieved, in part, for not being alone on the street anymore, but I was also freaking out. I kneeled to where his mouth was. He was breathing raggedly.

"You tell us to pick him up and then you get in the way?"

"Shut up," I said, then put my ear to his chest. His heart was okay. I flipped him over and patted his back, hard and rhythmic. He soon was coughing up water. "Follow me, my house is just down the road." I had a first aid kit there. I ran off toward the house I was becoming familiar with. The pale red bricks were just coming into view when I pulled the key out of the front pocket of my black denim purse. I shoved the key into the lock and unlocked it, before throwing the door open and running up stairs to get a towel and the kit. When I got back down, the boys were just standing there, waiting to be told where to put him.

"Oh, for heaven's sake! Y'all are morons! Set him there!" I pointed to the cream couch as I said this. The pesky clear box with a green lid wouldn't open. I finally ripped it off and got out the hydrogen peroxide, along with a few cotton balls and the biggest band-aid I could find. "Move!" A scratch about as big as my little finger was just above his left eye. My heart was skipping beats as I applied the cotton ball to the scratch. I didn't just walk all that way, you know.

The hydrogen peroxide did it's work and no sooner had I applied it did Manic suck in a hissing breath. His striking green eyed flew open, unfocused and fuzzy. I finished the work of bandaging it and helped him sit up.

"Now," I said, fuming. "What the hell happened?"

"Uh…"

"Shade, get him some water, the cups are in the left cabinet if you are looking right at the fridge. And hurry, you daft ninny."

I get bossy when I'm angry. 'Nuff said.

Shadow just glared at Knuckles and the latter gulped nervously. He was saved by the phone ringing. I jumped up to get it. I didn't have the number memorized, but it looked like my mother's. I wasn't going to risk that.

"Hello, you've reached the Nurminy's, this is Bethany. How may-"

"Bethany! You had your father and I sick with worry! Why didn't you call when you got home? I hope you're okay! What were you thinking?"

"Mom, an emergency came up, but it's all better now, I was just about to call you. Honest."

"Well, Dearie? What was the emergency?" Her voice portrayed she was annoyed at my lack of information.

"I need to clean it up, see you later!"

"Bethany, Answer my question! Clean up what? I'll be home in two hours young lady, and I expect answers."

"A mess, Mom. Love you, bye!"

"Bethany! Don't hang up yet! I sti-" She was cut off. She had ended the call, and I was not going to call her back. Good thing to, Manic started to actually groan, I'm not kidding.

"What's the matter?" I cried angrily.

"I have no clue!" Shade shouted at me from the sitting room. I stormed in there with a slice of cold pizza from the fridge and stared down Manic. He rubbed his head.

"Explain, NOW!"

"Why? It's none of your business." Sonic pouted.

"I just bandaged a beat up guy from your group in my house! I have a right to know!" I cried while handing Manic the pizza. What? I'm not heartless.

"Fine, we were-"

"Knuckles!"

"Whatever, but I'll be onto all six of you by Monday. Now out of my house!"

They all scurried out, Manic taking my towel with him. I yelled at him until he gave it back. He smirked and winked, and my face heated up real quick. What the heck was wrong with me? Why was he such a moron?

"Bye, Anny!" Why did he have to call me that? "Thanks!"

I huffed. At least one guy said a "thank you" of any sorts.

**I am sucker for action, and I loved writing this, tell me what you think by reviewing! **

**For the OC NEEDED thing, I don't have all the characters for the football and cheerleading teams, and the school newspaper isn't even started. So I would need, hypothetically, their core personality trait and where in the school they would be. BUT ALL OC'S ARE WELCOME!**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

**MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!**


	6. Swim Trunks

**Chapter 6****: ****Swim Trunks**

Amy woke up Saturday to an argument her brother was having down the hall. It seemed as though his girlfriend wanted to break up with him, even if she kept insisting she could make it work. Amy groaned softly at the quarrel and said to herself that she would never be like Natasha. Rouge came in unannounced and sat right upon the bed. She was smiling as she shut the door. The shouting was toned down some.

"Guess who had her first kiss last night?" she teased her excitedly. Rouge was wearing red cheetah pajamas and little slippers that were the only things she had gotten from her mother before she passed away. The mother bat was always so kind and generous, but she had locked her own feelings away. Rouge laughed as she pointed with both thumbs at herself. "This girl!"

"No way!" Amy said sarcastically. Morning sunlight was streaming through her pink curtains. The little flower showed across the rug. Rouge clapped her hands together and then cried "Now guess what we're gonna do today?"

"What? I'm on the edge of my seat!" Amy replied sarcastically, again. The white bat laughed and rubbed her eyes, which were completely clean of all make up. This made her have a natural glow to her face, and she was brighter and more open without the heavy weight of it on her face. Amy was probably the only one who knew what Rouge looked like without it all. Even the tan muzzle was considerably paler than what it had been last night at Cream's.

"We are going to go to the pool! And invite everyone!" Rouge cried. She then hopped off the bed and crossed the room to Amy's drawers and shelf, searching for her friend's swimsuit.

"And exactly who would that be Rouge?" The pink hedgehog asked as she threw off the covers and strode across the room. She was soon standing next to the bat and showed where their swimsuits were. The bat immediately seized her bikini and Amy reached in to grab the swim cover to throw it at her adoptive sister's face. Rouge started to giggle and undress. Looking away, Amy reached in once again to withdraw her own bathing suit. Unlike her old one, this particular suit was a one piece that showed her back and was sort of low cut. After all, it showed cleavage when she put it on.

After a few moments, Daniel came in with an apologetic look and went to hug both of them. He was obviously close to crying and they both hugged him fiercely. He was their brother and provider and Amy and Rouge were both very grateful for him working two jobs. So, the two girls cleaned and shopped and cooked while he relaxed the best he could. Plus, he was a college student, too.

It was because of this that Amy really looked up to her older brother.

"I broke up with her," he stated simply. Then he sat on his sister's plush rug. His head was placed in his hands. "I guess that it was over sooner or later. I am just glad I realized what was going on before she had a chance to tell me. You girls should learn from this, I believe."

"Oh, come now Danny, we won't cheat on our boyfriends," Amy said and patted her brother's head. "Promise."

"Me, too," Rouge piped in and squeezed the Rose's tighter. All three of them smiled and Danny questioned "Swimming?"

They nodded and invited him to come.

***Insert line here***

"Sonia, the telephone is for you!" Aleena called on the other line. A mild thumping was heard.

"Hello?" Sonia asked. Amy and Rouge tried to contain their squeals. The pair had already gotten Cream to come as well as Tails. The little bunny had wanted the fox to come, so they asked.

"SONIA! WE ARE GOING SWIMMING! WANNA COME!" The girls screamed. Sonia immediately jerked back the phone from her ear. Amy and rouge were practically jumping up and down. If Sonia came, that meant Sonic and Manic could come, too. And it would be just like old times. And of course Rouge had wanted to invite Knuckles, they hadn't gotten to him yet though.

"Sorry guys," Sonia sniffed. "I have a cold. Maybe next time?"

Pouting to each other on one end, the girls said a solemn "Okay" and went about phoning the echidna on their list. Little to their knowledge, Sonia informed her brothers of the pool outing, and they both were ecstatic. After quite a bit of begging on Manic's part, Aleena finally agreed to let the brothers go. The boys immediately ran upstairs and changed then ran out the door until they came back for sunscreen. Aleena, expecting such behavior, was ready for them.

Amy and Rouge were just about to call Knuckles when the doorbell rang, so Amy went to go answer it while Rouge phoned.

"Sonic?" It was a surprise that he had some seeking Amy out at her house, but what was even more surprising was that he was in swim trunks when he replied "Hey Ames, how are ya? My sis informed me of this pool party thing and I wanted to come. Would that be alright with you?"

Amy was so excited she nodded and let him come in. Happy thoughts were interrupted by suspicious questions, but Amy tried to push them away. The blue hedgehog was standing awkwardly while looking at her bare back, which wasn't covered with the shorts she wore on top of the suit, obviously. She bit her lip.

The pale fur of his bare chest was ruffled slightly and the shorts he was wearing were black with streaks of red and white down the sides. Amy started blushing as he examined her in turn. His blush was less visible, but it was there and only Sonic noticed.

"I like your swimsuit, Amy," he commented and then Rouge squealed in the other room.

"Knuckles is coming!" she shouted and squealed once again. The white bat then emerged and Sonic's ears went red. The bikini was white with pink striped, but it wasn't very concealing. She laughed at the boy's embarrassment and went back in the room to shut the door. The doorbell rang again and Amy cocked her head when she opened it. Manic stood there with his hand in Anne's and his bare chest puffed up proudly. The little indigo hedgehog was wearing a modest swimsuit, which had little black shorts and an intricate strap design up top. The top was blue and black swirls that curled into each other. The boy at the door was wearing similar shorts to his brother, only the draw strings were white, plus he _had_ draw strings.

"Hey."

"Manic! BRUTHA! I was wondering where you were," Sonic said, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Where were you, exactly?"

"I didn't want Anny to be left out." Anne blushed at this. The boy was smirking. "And also I thought it would be cool when Anne saw me shirtless. " By now, the poor girl was blushing really red. Like, and I know it's cliché, but, tomatoes. The daft boy did not get it, so he kept on talking. "And I really don't want anyone to be left out."

"That's real sweet, Manic," giggled Amy as she proceeded to usher them in.

A few minutes later, Rouge rushed out of the room wearing a different swimsuit as the doorbell rang. When she threw it open, Knuckles was there. The gang laughed when Shade the Guardian's ears peeked out from behind him, then Citrus bounded down the road toward them.

Citrus was a deer, with strong agile legs and small round ears. She had a white stripe down her nose and bright blue eyes. She was currently wearing a pure black tankini with black flops to match. The sunglasses on her caramel hair were dark as well, and she was carrying a bag with a towel hiding it's contents. She waved at everyone.

"Hi! Citrus! When I said everyone, I meant everyone," Rouge said to the group. "What are you guys standing there for? Let's go a swimming! Cream and Tails will meet us there."

The group set off down the sidewalk. Rouge had her arm around Knuckles' and Citrus was walking side by side with Shade. Anne was hopping with joy and Manic was watching her with amusement. Amy was walking quietly next to Sonic as he actually _walked_ with the group.

Upon arriving at the pool, Cream shouted Amy's name and ran to hug her. The little bunny was wearing an orange one piece with a large white flower. Tails was in the pool already, floating on his back with his tan swim shorts. Sonic sighed and grabbed kitty floats before strapping them to his arms and wading into the pool. Amy thought he looked just handsome. He splashed Tails and the fox panicked and went under, coming up a second later sputtering water. Manic pushed Anne in and laughed while she grabbed his arm on the way down. They fell in together. Rouge sat on a beach chair talking to Knuckles while Shade picked up the small doe and tossed her in.

"Shade! You're gonna get it!" She shouted when she resurfaced. She yanked him in by his ear. He screamed girly like as she dragged him into the water. Amy laughed at the couple and walked in with the steps. The cool water brushed up against her legs and she jumped out. Then, with a conclusion that she must jump, Amy leapt into the pool and splashed nearly everyone. Danny came in then and went to go sit in a corner, smiling at the teenagers antics.

Shade was wearing a shirt with his swim trucks when he came in, but it was now nowhere to be found. Citrus' flops were sitting by her bag and shades while she continued to torment poor Shade. Anne was laughing but kept getting dunked by a certain pair of bothers (oops, I mean brothers). On one such occasion, Anne had asked with concern about how Manic's head was doing while pointing to the bandage on his forehead. He had simply shrugged then leapt on top of her to dunk her. She spun about and started coughing because she wasn't ready. Manic had then apologized and laughed. Anne had glared daggers at the boy.

Meanwhile, Sonic had repeatedly splashed Amy on her back then turned away when the girl had turned towards him. The blue hero then proceeded to hop away. Amy smirked and sunk under to prank someone. Since she had, after all, brought her goggles, she proceeded to use them. So, the pink hedgehog went about tickling people and just plain having a good time. Shade screamed like a girl every time she would tickle him, because he was very ticklish. Citrus would laugh and then hit him on the arm telling him to "women up" and everything all was fun and games.

The sun beat down, and an unlucky doe got a sunburn, even if she was wearing sunscreen. Anne was fine, which was surprising, considering she had not put on any sunscreen and she was really quite pale. Manic had laughed hysterically at that, and had decided quietly with Sonic that he would someday do something. Amy had not heard the rest, because she swam away.

"Anne," called Amy as she came over. The girl turned. Her hazel eyes locked on to Amy's jade green ones as Amy commented. "You swim like a mermaid, why?"

The girl had simply replied "I learned that way," and off she went.

**Hello Readers! Thank You for reading this. Since this takes place right after the last chapter, I figured they should be uploaded close together, too. So I worked a long time on Saturday for you guys.**

**On the OC thing, here is an example of the entry I would want you to enter.**

**Name: Bethany Anne Nurminy (addressed by her friends as Anne and Anny)**

**Female**

**Age:14**

**Type: Hedgehog**

**Sort Description of Personality: Caring, smart, and lovable **

**Fatal Flaw: Is a daft ninny most of the time. Also, she forgets things, a lot. She is too freaking shy. Just saying.**

**Special ability: *spoileralert***

**Fur Color: Indigo**

**Muzzle: Pale**

**Hobbies: Reading, reading, eating, maybe a little sleeping thrown in there too, and hanging out with her friends. Did I mention she likes to read?**

**Where she would appear based on her character traits: Well, she would just roll with it and not join anything if her friends didn't pressure her into going out for the cheerleading team (good peer pressure y'all).**

**Well, MAKE IT A GREAT DAY! PEACE!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**Hello my beautiful readers! It is I! Well, I am getting a lot of OC's. Thank you so much! Y'all are so cool! Well, without further ado, here is Chapter 7.**

Cream stumbled through the door way into Pine Middle School. The flock of students were pushing and shoving one another everywhere. The rabbit, however, went right over to a column, which seemed magically abandoned compared to the rest of the school. She sighed and looked again at the two-tailed kitsune who was leaning up against said column. He was so handsome when he stood like that.

But, you didn't hear it from Cream.

Tails was wearing khaki shorts and a gray t-shirt that was blank. He had new shoes, and they were one half white, one half red. His hands were shoved into his pockets and his eyes were searching the crowd, as if looking for someone, but the way he tried to look nonchalant while doing it was quite amusing. The rabbit jumped over to Tails and hugged the boy without thinking.

He stumbled before patting her shoulder awkwardly. She quickly pulled away, quite embarrassed, and blushed fiercely.

"How are you, Cream?" Tails asked. Now the boy was smiling and sort of glancing over her shoulder. She looked up and turned.

Coming down the hallway were a bunch of mean looking boys. They had sneers on their faces as they_ tried_ to swagger down the hall.

"Hey," one called, chuckling darkly, "look who showed up to school today, mates. If it isn't the fox freak himself."

Cream started to dislike these boys. Right away.

"What are you gonna do, freak? Smart me to death?" another chided.

Tails tried to hold back tears, but Cream, knowing the boy quite well, knew that Tails was really hurt by those comments. Or taunts. Yeah, that was the right word.

"Ooh," one said, making a disgusted face. Cream knew this kid. It was the skunk in her class. Gosh, this dude was annoying _normally_. "Who dragged the dead cat in? Somebody forgot to use-"

"Shut your stupid mouth, Gary," Cream snapped. The skunk looked taken aback. "That foul odor following you around is just your own behind. Maybe, you wouldn't stink so badly if you didn't hang around guys who smell like an ally way." At this, she glared at all of them. "You morons should be ashamed of yourselves."

"Aw, little big ears here is trying to defend her boyfriend."

Okay, now they were gonna get it.

"You are all total jerks, just because he can do more than you doesn't mean you have to make fun of him for it! Where in those tiny little brains of yours does that make sense, huh? What idiot gave you the idea that picking on others is fun? How many times will you do it to make you feel less miserable about yourself? Because it's not going to work! You bullying him is not going to solve any of your miserable little problems! Or your stupid big ones. Because there is no cure for stupidity! Come on, Tails, let's go to class."

After Cream's rant was done, the dumbstruck fox let her lead him into Mr. Roger's class. When they got there, she sat him in a desk and softly asked him if he was okay. He nodded, but Cream didn't believe him. The fox cleared his throat a few minutes later and turned to the rabbit.

"Uh… Didn't you want help with your Science homework?" Tails asked Cream. The rabbit nodded excitedly and unzipped her bag. She wondered what had gotten Tails so, uh, worked up? Would that be the phrase?

"It's about genes. And the crisscross table things. I am not sure I understand how it works." She wanted to get his mind off the encounter.

"Well, jeans? Well, you're wearing them. And they're blue," Tails started. Cream interrupted him with "No no no. The genetic type of genes."

"Oh, well, in that case, the table is made up of four squares, see? And then the allele pairs represent the genes you inherited. So, let's say you have a brown eyed mom, and a blue eyed father. Since brown eyes are dominant, all the children would have brown eyes, unless the mom had one dominant and one recessive gene, in which there is a 50% chance of the child having blue eyes. You see?" As he said this, Tails drew a square and labeled the top two boxes with two little b's and the side two boxes with one big B and one little b. Then, he combined the two so that each of the four squares had a pair of letters matching the genetic code in Tails' description. The kitsune then circled the bottom two boxes, which both had two little b's. "These are the children with blue eyes, because the dominant brown eyed trait doesn't get in the way."

"Thanks, Tails. But, what makes it dominant?"

As Tails explained this, the bell rang to go ton first period, so Cream grabbed her homework while still listening to the fox and zipped up her bag. When he finished, he had his bag slung over his shoulder and was smiling again. The rabbit rushed up to him.

"Thanks, Tails." She pecked him on the cheek instinctively. "If those boys bother you again, come get me, and they'll be very sorry. I insist."

"I think I can take care of that myself. But, thank you for the offer, Creamy."

Oh, dear.

The little bunny burst into a blush. Her face was on fire. First the kiss, now the nickname. Oh, no. She was left blushing until a pop quiz in fourth period.

***Line means time skip***

Cream was trying to run and not trip over her untied shoelaces at the same time when she thought about Tails again, and the only reason she thought about him was because he caught up to her and was running beside her. She stopped to tie her shoe and Tails walked over.

"Hey, Cream, I was wondering how your quiz went."

"It was okay, thanks for helping me understand. Tails?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have a lot of friends in 8th grade?" The bunny looked at him curiously. She really wanted to know. She stood and they jogged off while Tails thought of how he would respond. Should he lie? Should he tell her the truth? That she was one of the two true friends he had at this school? Tails pondered the thought for such a long time Cream began to look worried and confused at the same time.

_I should tell her the truth_, he finally decided. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Cosmo the Seedrian running down the walkway. She was yelling something about the book characters she was obsessed with. She ran head-on into him and hugged him tightly. Tails looked over at Cream bashfully. Her eyes were filling with tears for some reason.

"-my boyfriend! You have to!" What on Mobius was she saying? Why was Cream glaring daggers at the girl? Tails tried to disentangle Cosmo from him while still pondering questions in his mind.

"PLEASE!" Cosmo begged him. He raised a brow and said "What?"

The girl sighed and started her story. "So I was walking into class, right, and then Charmy started teasing me about not having a boyfriend and I told him I did without thinking. And then he asked me who, and your name was the first that came to mind. So you have to pretend to be my boyfriend, please?"

"You got yourself into this mess, Cosmo, you can get yourself out. I am not pretending to be your boyfriend. I have values against it. Sorry." Tails smiled sadly and laid a hand on Cream's shoulder. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to walk Miss Cream to class."

***Line means view change***

Manic laughed as he grabbed the ball from a bear, named Smokey, and ran with it under his arm toward the end zone. Sonic appeared beside him and yelled "Bro, Pass!" As Manic did so, he heard a thud. It came from where the cheerleaders were. Oh, dear. The boy then found himself wondering what was happening with Anne's tryout. If it turned out a disaster, he would feel bad. He had pressured her to do so at lunch. Now, here they were, after school, and she was actually doing it. She looked good in the plain gray t-shirt and mesh shorts.

Of course, Manic didn't turn around to check what it was, he continued running and trying to keep up with his older brother. Sonic grinned and threw him the ball as he was almost tackled for the third time by none other than Knuckles the steroid guy-uh, I mean echidna.

Manic skidded into a stop in the end zone with the ball. He sat there panting and falling onto his back before looking upside down at the try outs. Coach was coming up the way, and Manic had a few seconds to glance at what Courtney was having five new girls do. They were all doing push-ups and Anne was having trouble. She really wasn't kidding , then. She really did have noodles for arms. She made it though, and they started doing lunges down the track when Coach's ugly face screamed "Get Up, Cupcake!"

This might take a while.

***Line again***

Whenever Knuckles offered a ride, everyone declined nicely, and off the echidna went. Amy, not to be left behind in anything, had also gone out for the squad and was walking home with the group. Manic walked next to Anne and Sonic, hearing the sound of Anne grumbling under her breath about taking care of not being strong enough. Seriously. He had no idea anyone who looked that fit could actually struggle with doing a push-up. The sit ups, though, she was blazing through those.

Today, instead of two buns like last week, Anne was wearing her hair in one ponytail at the top of her head. It was swinging as she skipped along the road. Her plain light purple backpack was hanging at her side. The one-strap looked kind of appealing to Manic, like not having a sweaty weight on your back after practice. Because if Manic was super sure about anything this specific moment in time, it was that he would make the football team.

Around halfway down the long road leading to housing development, Anne put her ear buds in and started moving to a beat only she could hear. She moved her hips and arms and smiled in a way that Amy couldn't help joining in. The two girls moved their feet as their shared headphones were in no danger of falling. Two steps with your left foot, then put the toe of your right foot forward and reverse. They swung their hips one way, then another and moved to putting them forward. Sonic watched the swing of Amy's hips particularly, and Manic saw a chance to elbow his brother in the side.

And all was good and well, up until the game.

**There wasn't a lot of school and teachers in this chapter, and to tell you guys the truth, they won't in the next chapter either. Again, thanks for all the feedback!**

**Please Review and Make it a Great Day!**


	8. The Game

**Here it is, readers! Chapter 8. Keep in mind that I haven't been to a football game in a while. Sorry if it is not to your liking on my description. I did read Football for Dummies. I didn't completely understand.**

Hey, I never meant to pass out during the football game, but under the circumstances, you shouldn't blame me. But, hey, there's a first time for everything.

The Emerald High School bus was pulling into the parking lot when I finally arrived at my school. This was our home game, so you better believe all the people on our team were gonna try their best to beat them. I grabbed my bag from the car and dashed into the school wearing my uniform. In the gymnasium, Courtney spotted me as soon as I ran in.

"You're late!" she snapped at me. I ducked my head. This was embarrassing. Our uniforms were green, trimmed with gold. The shirt was short sleeved with a low neckline and the skirt had so many ruffles, it would make your eyes hurt. Our pom-poms looked like a school spirit cat had a massive hairball.

"Oh, don't be so hard on her, Courtney. This is her first time and all," Isabella piped up. I gave her grateful smile. The fox smiled back and winked at me. When Courtney shot a glare at her, though, she shut up. Courtney was captain of the cheerleading squad, so yeah.

While we warmed up, I kept on thinking about how nervous I was about this whole game thingy. Amy wasn't on the team, which still confused me to no end, so I was almost alone in this group of vicious girls. Almost. Isabella was plenty nice, but she was a goody-too-shoes. My arm muscles screamed as we did a stretch. At first, I had felt that Courtney was giving me extra stuff to do, but I had realized how selfish that was during a sleepless night, so I just put up with the training. And you know what? I think it's working.

The band started to play the school fight song, so every girl in the squad rushed to the exit doors behind the locker rooms and squealed. I'm not joking. We ran to the field with our pom-poms and got in two lines on the field facing one another. The crowd was to my right. We raised our blasted poms and started to wiggle them in the air. The football players charged out and ran through the parade of screaming cheerleaders. Courtney sent Manic a wink. For some reason, I didn't like that at all. What made it better was when Manic ignored her. I felt like snickering, to be honest.

The sun dipped below the bleacher stands. The sky looked as if you had left and orange, red, and yellow popsicle to melt on a warm summer day. If you looked the other way, there would be tendrils of dark blue creeping across the sky. All of it was picture perfect. Made me want to learn to paint. Or at least it made me wish I had my sketchbook with me.

"Hey," someone said from behind me. Manic stood there in his full padding and with his helmet tucked underneath his arm. His team was sitting on the benches near the actual field. On a bench nearby, cheerleaders sat and chatted. Manic ran a hand through his quills and smiled at me. "You nervous?"

"You don't even know the half of it." I poked him in the arm. "Should I blame you, tough guy? You are the one who had me try out anyway."

"As if! It is not my fault, Miss Nurminy, that you needed a little convincing to do the right thing," Manic replied. Then he pretended to tug on a shirt collar that wasn't there. "And thank you, I am indeed a tough guy."

I was about to say "Cut the act out, Mister Mach" when Sonic came over and tugged Manic by the ear toward the benches. He waved and grinned.

That was probably the best part of my night.

*Line means time skip*

Whenever possible, Courtney would nag me about _something_, whether it was my posture or the way I twirled my quills in my fingers, she would find a mistake, and then correct it. Once it was even the way I held onto my necklace. I mean, how do you even find fault in that? How?

So, while I was in the process of re-tying my shoe laces, the bell sounded for half-time. Just my luck, really.

The girls grabbed their pom-poms and eagerly awaited for the all of the players to get off the field. I grabbed the Gatorade I had in my bag and headed for the benches where our players were. The players were sweaty and dirty, so I felt guilty going up to them in my clean uniform. I was still happy that this uniform was modest. Manic was in the middle of the sea of sweat, so while I called his name, he struggled to get out of the throng of guys, well with one exception of course.

The girls were assembling on the field now, so I just tossed the cold Gatorade to Manic and sprinted off with my spirit thingies. I skidded to a stop in front of Courtney. She was headed to the back, which meant it was starting off with the first thing I had learned. The girls all faced the front and raised their pom-poms. I was second to the front. Not really good for my nerves.

What if I messed up, or what if we didn't remember it? What if I forgot it and stumbled over the words? I would look like a bumbling band of baboons.

That's when I caught Amy's eye, and she winked at me. That settled the flopping of my stomach and pounding of my heart in my ears. Now I could hear the buzz of the crowd in their excitement. I smiled and Courtney decided everyone should be in position by now, because that's when she started to shout the cheer.

"_LET'S GO TIGERS LET'S GO!"_

The crowd belonging to the school stood up and cheered. Freshman in the stands followed our lead, but the rest just shouted it and hollered and whooped. We clapped our spirit raisers to the beat and continued to shout the line over and over again. At the end of a line, we would pump the air. The drummers started to play a drumroll sorta thing, to which us leaders started rotating our wrists around each other and leaned back. We would all say "WOAH!" simultaneously while raising our hands and go back to the rotations. Ripples of green, blue, and gold went through the crowd.

Then, five cheerleaders lined up in a row and did the letters in "tiger". Don't ask me how Isabella did the 'g'. I don't have a clue. It was awesome though.

"LET'S GO TIGERS! WHOO!"

After that was done, I let out a breath as we piled our pom-poms on the lush grass in front of us and off to the side. One down, one to go. That was a great relief. I hadn't gotten very much sleep last night, but it all turned out to be fine and dandy. Well, lookie there. I was such a worry-wart some times.

Girls lined up in two pentagon shapes and got ready to catch the girls that we would drop. I was one of the base girls that would throw the flying one. So, I crouched on one knee and got ready to hold someone's ankles. Isabella was across from me, breathing in and out. She must have been nervous. I'm pretty sure we all were, at that point. Especially a girl named Loofa. She looked a little green to me. She was the flyer for Isabella and I. I stood and walked over to her.

"You okay?" I asked her. She shook her head and put a hand on her mouth. Was she crying, too? "Anything I could do to help?"

"I don't think I can do that right now." She held her arm close to her body. I wanted to help. Like, real badly.

"I can do it for you, if you like. We could switch," I suggested. She looked at me and nodded.

"That would help."

So that's what we did. She took up my spot and position, and I walked behind them and placed one of my feet on each bent leg. I always felt conscious about this part. I felt like I would hurt them. Like, I was too fat or something. Anyway, they held my ankle, and I knew they would take hold of the front of my shoe and toss me up into the air and I would have to flip and…

Oh, no. I would have to flip. And I didn't practice the move. On that track I hadn't even done a flip in a while.

Well, crap.

I remembered the lines though, so I shouted them with my squad mates and got ready to twist my body when they vaulted me into the air. Don't sweat it, Anne, you got this. Except the world started to spin madly, and I hadn't left my perch yet. The noise was drowned out by the beating of my heart. Blood roared in my ears. I bet my breathing got ragged, but I wouldn't know, because right then I was focused on getting my bearings again. That would be when they decided to throw me up in the air. I remembered I was supposed to be doing a flip or something like that, so I closed my eyes and twisted harshly. My guts felt like they were being kept inside and in place by a force, but another one was tugging and pulling them away. Everything slowed down and my heart beat resounded in my own head, which felt as if it were empty. I really regretted not eating anything before this, or sleeping either.

That's when I blacked out. It wasn't a pretty experience.

When I came to, I was in the locker room and Ms. Vanilla was standing over me. She smiled kindly and looked to the right, then nodded. I blinked again.

"Are you alright, dear?" She asked me. I nodded and took a deep breath. She helped me sit up, not that I needed it, though. "Would you like some water?" Another nod. I didn't feel like talking.

I felt on edge and unwelcome. Ms. Vanilla was kind and warming, but I didn't feel like I was supposed to be here. I looked to where Ms. Vanilla nodded a moment ago and spotted Amy. She looked at me and smiled. Her baby pink skirt went down to her knees and her white top had cap sleeves. She had crossed her legs and wagged her sneaker in the air. She had a butterfly necklace on.

Okay, I feel a little bit better now.

"Where is all the rest of the squad?" I asked her. She raised her shoulders and replied "They don't matter any way."

handed me a small cup. The locker room stench was overwhelming. Try combining the sweat of sixteen or so teenage guys with day old garbage in the summer and then let it sit and grow fungi. Oh, yah. Now throw in some Axe or whatever cologne they used in there too.

"If you're all right dear, you can go back to your team."

"Thank You, Ms. Vanilla, for everything."

Together, Amy and I stood and walked back out onto the field. Amy started to go back up to the bleachers, so I headed back to the benches where my water was. I threw the dinky cup into the trash as I passed it. A blush rose to my face as I saw them. Courtney was glaring. Oh, she did not like this. I was so going to get it.

"What were you thinking?" She had her voice down, but it was still screeching and annoyed.

"Sorry," I whispered, ducking my head in shame. My face just kept on burning.

"'Sorry' is not going to fix the humiliation of this! The whole football team laughed!" The girls didn't say a word to contradict, so I felt aweful. Had they really laughed? All of them? Manic and Sonic included? Cirtus,too? There was no way she would have laughed, and she was on the football team…

What an idiot I am.

"What made you think you could switch places with Loofa? Just because she was nervous?"

"We are supposed to look out for our team mates aren't we?"

"NO we are not! I am supposed to look out for all of y'all! You-" she jabbed a finger at me and snarled "are not to get involved in anything."

Lucky Me.

I sat out the rest of the time, no cheers, no hoots and hollars, nothing.

During the second to last whatcha ma call it, Emerald High was winning by twice the points. It was fourteen to twenty-eight. The visitor half of the stands was going wild.

Number fifteen on the other team had the ball and was running toward our end zone. Sonic and Manic (mostly Sonic) were gaining on him and getting ready to tackle. They nodded to each other and rammed into him from both sides. He never saw it coming. Forest High was on offensive now.

Knuckles began the play by passing the ball to Smokey, who plowed through a couple of guys until he threw it to Azul, a dark blue bat. After the bat nearly got trampled, they finally got the ball to Sonic, who sprinted to the end zone. The next play Forest High got to do was very similar to the its predecessor. We were neck and neck.

The boys began the final play with twenty or so seconds left on the clock. Knuckles passed to Shade, who ran and dodged an Emerald player. Shade passed the ball at the last second before getting his ears flat to the ground. The player got off in a hurry. Citrus had the ball now and was sprinting at the top speed toward the end zone. She didn't see number twenty-four coming up behind her. Smokey yelled "Pass!" to which Citrus obliged and threw a corkscrew at him. He barely caught it. Sonic, noticing the few seconds left on the clock and how slow Smokey was going, dashed up behind and took the ball, then next second was in the end zone.

Everyone erupted into cheers.

Forest High Won!

**I thank you for reading this and for waiting such a very very long time. It's been over a month, and I got out of the groove. I had a little writer's block. So sorry.**

**To all of the beautiful people who submitted OC's: THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I am sorry none of your OC's got in this Chapter yet, especially Reens, but I couldn't figure out how to add her in. **

**I'll make sure that all of the OC's submitted will be at least introduced by Chapter 10. Promise.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! I love it when people do that! It makes my day. Make it a Wonderful Glorious Day! **


	9. Afterwards

Chapter 9: And then…

Rouge was so proud of her knucklehead. He had done well. And now, she thought a celebration was in order. So, they went back to his house to come and eat a snack. And she had a little present for him in store.

*Line means view change*

Cream was sleeping when she heard a noise. It woke her and she lay in her bed, drowsy and disoriented. She yawned and stretched a bit, then turned over in her bed. Her eyes didn't want to open, and to be honest, she didn't want to wake up.

But someone was in her room.

She cracked her eyes open the tiniest bit, and there was a man standing over dresser. She didn't recognize the man, so she kept on breathing evenly.

She really hoped he didn't find the earrings she was saving for when she got her ears pierced.

*Line*

Amy was very happy.

She skipped out to the car and laughed. The girl wrapped her arms around her and breathed in with a wide smile. The reason being: Sonic had returned her hug.

The hedgehog was elated about this particular occurrence because this had never happened before, and based off what he said, this wouldn't be the last either. Oh, she was really happy about this.

The block in front of her was cracked, but she paid it no mind. That was, until she caught on a ridge and fell, making pain erupt in her ankle.

Amy cried out and caught herself. She rolled over on the grass and examined her ankle. The joint was twisted in a weird way. The girl was positive it was not supposed to be turned at that angle. She winced and sucked in a breath. Now how was she going to get home? A burning sensation blossomed from her joint and she believed it was already starting to swell.

A puff of air escaped her mouth. She could call for help, though who would hear her. She could phone Rouge or Danny, or maybe even Anne. She was so sweet.

Yes, Amy would call Anne for help. That was a good idea. She knew where she was, and she could tell Anne. That was a brilliant idea. Amy wince smiled and took out her phone. After Dialing Anne's number, she waited.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Anne, you busy?" Amy huddled and exhaled slightly.

"No, what's up?"

"Are you available to, uh, come and help me with something?"

"Depends on what it is."

"Well, I twisted my ankle and I need a ride. I can't walk."

"Crap. Where are you?"

Amy told her her location and laughed wistfully. Anne, panicked, promised her that she would be right there and hung up. The pain wasn't shocking anymore, just a sharp and wicked throbbing. The night breeze ruffled papers that were left lying there. When Amy looked at the moon, she could tell it was getting close to a full moon. That would be something. She took a deep breath in and sighed, wishing that she could talk to someone. It was really lonely here under the street lamp all alone. With nohing to do.

Wait.

She had a cell phone!

Anne called back a few moments later, asking if she was okay, Amy gave a response, but she was tired, so it didn't really convince Anne. A moment after that, her Dad's car pulled up and Anne jumped out. Amy wiped her eyes and said "Took you long enough."

The swelling in her ankle had gotten worse, and Mr. Nurminy was taking her to the hospital. Anne picked up Amy and supported her to the car. Anne then got into the passenger seat after she was buckled and Mr. Nurminy drove off to the hospital.

"I can't drive, so yeah," Anne giggled nervously. Amy nodded and smiled a bit, because one doesn't usually smile when in pain, mind you. Many cars were on the road, because this was a Friday Night, and many couples go for dates on Friday Nights. Amy sighed wistfully, thinking for the thousandth time that day about what it would be like to be Sonic's actual girlfriend. And how he would've saved her, only she didn't have his number.

*Line*

Rouge chuckled as she took Knuckles hand and led him to the door. Rouge took out her key and unlocked it, before pulling Knuckles inside. She closed the door and locked it.

"So, this is your house, huh?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, smiling and taking in his home around him.

"I'm disappointed Knuckie," she frowned and turned away to examine the walls. She smacked her lips and pretended to be quite interested in a painting. It was the only painting.

"What did you expect, Rouge? I live in the middle of no where!" Knuckles replied. He wrapped his arms around her and put his chin on her shoulder. She smiled.

"Not no where, you live on an island, which is floating above a lake, which is not in the wilderness either, there is a park within a mile radius to honor this island. Plus, there's that Gorgeous Diamond!"

"Don't steal the master Emerald, Rouge, Okay? I'll never let you up here again."

She whirled around and faced him. He was grinning evilly. She pouted and sighed, exasperated, before he said a "Just Kidding," and pulled her into his arms facing him. He kissed her gently and she kissed him right back. She was elated as he grabbed her butt.

Knuckles pushed her up against a wall, and he chuckled. She smiled and pushed herself against him. He breathed heavily as Rouge pushed herself up against him. Rouge wanted him and Knuckles wanted her. She hungrily kissed him. His tongue poked at the edge of her lips, asking permission to enter.

One thing led to another, and soon they were in the bedroom. And you all know what happened next.

*Line*

Cream lay there and she heard the sound of the door being unlocked.

_Mama!_

The figure turned and looked toward the bedroom entrance. Cream strained her eyes in the dark. The only light was coming through the window. She tried to remember the time, but she realized it was a pointless endeavor. It could be any time.

"Cream, dear? Why are all the lights out?" Vanilla called into the dark house. Cream wanted to warn her mother, because now the figure was heading out of the room, but she valued her life, and her mama was probably better off without Cream getting hurt.

"Vanilla? The power went out while Cream was asleep. I was looking for the emergency flashlight you told me was kept in her drawer," the stranger said.

Vanilla walked in and laughed with her cell phone flash light. It revealed that the stranger was a purple chameleon. He was not amused, but straight-faced and stoic. Cream called out to her mother "Mama!"

Her mother turned and sat on the bed, hugging her daughter in a tight hug. Cream let out a deep sigh. The stranger was not a thief. In fact, he was a detective! Which was sort of like a cop! Cream closed her eyes and buried her face into her mother's chest. Everything was alright.

After five minutes, Espio (Cream had learned the stranger's name) left and bid good night to the girls. He smiled and said he would have to get home to his wife very soon. Cream was smiling when she fell asleep again.

*Line*

Amy was in pain, I could tell that. She was getting an x-ray and I was in the waiting room eith my father. Across from Daddy and I was a girl. She was a light blue hedgehog with a dark blue braid. She looked terrified. I decided she looked nice and talked to her.

"Hello, what's your name?" I asked with a cheery smile. She looked down at the ground.

"I'm Reens," she said tentatively. She had her arms folded.

I smiled again, this time a genuine one. "I'm Anne, it's nice to meet you."

Reens smiled. Then wiped her face. Her red eyes told me that she had been crying. It looked like she was here for someone, I'm just not sure who.

"Ms. Maricina, he may see you now."

She nodded and stood up to go, only giving me a glance. I don't blame her for being shy. I'm shy most of the time, but I guess Amy might have rubbed off on me. Which reminded me that she was in the E.R. right now.

I really hoped she would be okay.

*Line*

Manic found himself thinking about Anne that night. And Mina, but mostly Anne. And how he had punched Smokey when the bear had laughed at her. He had quite enjoyed doing it actually.

**Thanks for reading it GUYS!**

**Who do you ship? Who do you think I ship? What do you think will happen to the gang next?**

**PLEASE REVIEW! HAVE A GREAT DAY!**


	10. LOL

**Chapter 10:** Laughing out loud?

**Special thanks to ReenstheHedgehog2, JunoJelly, TheRealOTC, and Christian Wolf27 for allowing me to use their OC's. I will continue to have them pop up over and over. So thank you for your participation.**

Manic heaved and wiped the sweat from his brow. The competition was a week form Friday. That was enough time, wasn't it? He could still run track every day. He wanted to be able to keep up with his siblings.

"I'll be right back, I just want some water!" He called to Zapra, who was also in Track. She smiled and Manic had a feeling that something bad was about to happen. She did like to play pranks on him every so often. She wore a gray tank top and tennis shoes with sweat pants, which were, in fact, very sweaty.

He strode over to the bench and took a swig from his water bottle. He then gagged and sputtered, while Zapra cracked up and giggled. She nearly fell over. Inside his bottle was pasty baby formula. This was like the one time that she had him go to the Principals office for no reason other than to pick up a lunch that wasn't there. Oh, this was another one of her practical jokes.

It was actually pretty funny.

She leapt into the air, her short and spiked hair brimming with electricity. She leapt into the air and electricity was shot into the already cloudy and drizzling sky. Manic was chilly, but also covered in sweat. It was not a fun combo.

"That's disgusting, Zapra."

"But it's hilarious!"

"Point taken," he replied, wiping his mouth and leaving the ruined bottle on the bench. He swiped up is coat and put it on, trying to block out the annoying trickle of rain. School would start soon.

He just hoped he could get that taste out of his mouth before Lunchtime.

*Line*

Mr. Jackson was angry with me. I had never been late to his class before, so this was completely new. He soon, however got over that and started getting onto Courtney for her dress code, or lack there of. He continued the lesson on polygons after sending Courtney to the Dean's office.

"Anne, would you please enlighten the class on what polygon has ten sides?" Mr. Jackson had a spiked bracelet on and it was very distracting, but I knew the answer none-the-less.

"Decagon, sir."

"Very good." And when he turned, someone snickered and passed me a paper.

**New Cheerleader Faints During Routine!**

**By: "Pepso"**

I took one look and threw the paper away. I thought Isabella said that they couldn't tell! Well, at least it didn't have my picture. When I got to practice, Courtney would chew me out and give me three laps or forty push-ups.

Great…

*Line*

Anne had missed him. It was cute. She got all mad at him. The bus was usually where they would say Good morning to each other, but that did not work mornings that he had practice. She pouted at him during choir and sat close to him during lunch, even though she was blushing.

Manic was positive that she liked him, which was fine by him. He enjoyed having more than one girl swoon over him. Mina wanted to be his girlfriend; there was no doubt about that. Then Anne was totally falling for him and his charms.

He smiled. Looked at Anne and got her attention by just sitting there.

"Cantaloupes."

"What?" she retorted, puzzled. She snorted and took another bite of her sandwich. "What are you referring too?

"Rouge," Manic shook his head. She wasn't looking so good, but still had big ones none-the less. She looked a little sick to her stomach. "You feeling alright?"

She looked up and nodded with a slight grimace.

"Okay, then. Watermelons."

Rouge slapped him and covered her chest. Then she keeled over and gagged. When she came back up, she said "I need to go to the nurse."

Now Anne got it, and was blushing very much. She kept on glancing down and glaring at him. Amy knew, and was waiting on him to say something about the other girls at the table.

Clever girl.

"Amy, would you like some cherries?" She scoffed and folded her arms while looking away. She firmly shook her head and then silently, while she thought Manic was not looking, looked down and mouthed "Cherries?" with a scowl.

"How about you Sally? Cherry?"

"No, thank you," she replies coolly. She didn't seem phased.

"I don't know, I like cherries," said Sonic, eating some chili. Sally smirked and glanced Manic's way. Amy's eyes were about to brim over with tears.

"Sonia-"

"Shut up, Manic."

Manic sighed and looked back at Anne, who was thoughtfully crying. If there was such a thing, Anne would do it. Gosh, she was embarrassed. She was closer to Manic now, but he didn't mind one bit.

*line*

Amy was upset. Overly so. Sonic was flirting with Sally. Which meant that he didn't like her, so Amy was rethinking everything as little tears streaked down her face. She picked at her food.

What had the hug meant exactly? Why did he sign his name with a heart instead of a dot in her yearbook last year? When was the last time that Sonic and her had hung out or pounded Egghead as a team?

Maybe Sonic didn't like her. Maybe she was clingy.

Maybe she shouldn't be Amy the obsessive (at all).

Her whole life, was a lie.

*Line*

He was such a jerk. I had never had my breasts referred to before, especially in that manner by a _boy! _I was enjoying my lunch when he just. What an inappropriate thing to say!

That's when I started crying.

I was ashamed and embarrassed. My cheeks flushed and I slouched. Then I started to laugh and cry at the same time. Because he made many comparisons, not just about sensitive matters. I guess that way he was just a boy, really.

He looked at me with those vibrant blue eyes and laughed. The first day he had worn contacts to change his eye color and see if anyone would notice. No one did. But his real eye color was blue. Crystal blue, very bright and alive, nearly always filled with laughter. I knew that there was always something he wasn't telling me, and that something was a dark time in his life. He had hinted at it a few times, but he would never actually come out and say it.

I looked back at my Cheetos and picked up the bag while scanning the table. Manic and I were right next to each other eating. Sonic and Sally were looking at each other, probably having another staring contest. Sonia was yelling at her homework and Knuckles looked oblivious. Like always.

Except Rouge wasn't there. Amy got up at that time, with tear streaks down her face. I wondered why she had been crying. Could it be perhaps of Sonic's comment? She excused herself, saying she was going to check on Rouge in the nurse.

I got up as well, leaving my lunch and phone (accidently) with Manic. We walked side by side to the nurse's office. Amy was using her crutches, hobbling around with a boot and a sandal. The weather was getting colder, it being the end of September, so she was taking every last chance to wear them. I would have to start making hats pretty soon.

You see, last Saturday I realized that I am really thankful for my friends, so I decided to make them hats, each. I know how to crochet and I had recently learned how. I was super excited to finally use all that yarn I had in my room. I was planning for Christmas.

We arrived at the Nurse's office and Amy sighed. I opened the door for her, she said thank you, Nurse Farmer was there. I was all good until we couldn't spot Rouge.

"Ms. Farmer, have you seen Rouge?" asked Amy. She was wearing a red shirt with jean shorts like mine. The nurse shook her head. She got up from behind her desk. Her khaki pencil skirt blended in with the desk, but her soft pink shirt did not, with anything.

"Why, dear?"

"She said she was going to the Nurse during Lunch," I replied, stuffing my hands in my pockets. Ms. Farmer shook her head again.

"Rouge hasn't been in here all day."

"Thanks anyway!" we called as we exited the small but cozy room. It smelled like a hospital. There had been a chart with the letters and a different one about concussions.

So, Amy and I checked out the bathroom, because Rouge had looked like she had been about to barf. There was a couple girls in there, but not one was puking. We even called her name, but no answer. Since the stench was too much for me anyway, I said I needed to go get a drink. Which was by the other bathrooms.

When Amy and I got there, we heard muttering, I got my drink and we went in.

"Rouge?" Amy called. There was movement and then an answer.

"In here," Rouge groaned, miserable. Amy and I went into the actual bathroom and pushed open the stall. Rouge was sitting on the seat, legs crossed in her dark red jeans, holding a white stick and looking so worried it sort of hurt to look at her. She glanced at us and started her explanation.

"I should've started a week ago, and now I feel sick for no reason. I think I might be…" She couldn't finish her sentence. She lifted the stick. "Two lines negative, one line positive."

We waited.

Rouge started to freak out. She was so anxious, it would kill a giraffe. It would like die of worry, if that's even possible.

It beeped softly.

Three faces peered at the little screen.

One line.

**Alright, be honest, WHO SAW THIS COMING?**

**Anyway thanks for reading. I really want to know who you guys want to be together in this story. I love your inputs. Please Review.**

**Have a great day!**

**Oh, if you have an OC that can be on the football team or cheer leading squad or the Newspaper club, let me know, but I'll welcome all of them.**

**The Dark Gems are going to make an appearance in the next two chapters.**


	11. Heroes Derp!

Chapter 11: Heroes Derp!

Knuckles paced the floor, nothing in his head and trying **not** to ignore everything Rouge was saying. She was beating around the bush, and Knuckles wasn't following, which wasn't surprising, but very annoying. Anne was there too, only she was on the phone and Manic was derping in the background, trying to get her to mention him while she talked to her mother. Not a good idea, but he was Manic, so it was totally normal. Sonic was listening to his iPod back in the living room with everyone else. Even Shade was there, mostly because there was going to be a meeting with all of the Dark Gems. Sonia was with Amy in the magenta hedgehog's bedroom. Girl stuff.

"Knuckles," sobbed Rouge. "Are you even listening?"

"What?"

"You're ridiculous!" she cried angrily. "You are going to be a Father!"

"Of course I am," he replied, his face stupid. "I'm certainly not going to be a mother." He smiled, thinking that he had outsmarted her. She sighed put her hand on her head. Then a small cry escaped her throat. There was no way around this.

"Knuckie," she began, taking a deep breath in and mustering all her courage, "I'm pregnant."

Knuckles stood there for a moment, his face basically a "Please wait, loading" sign. Like lightning, it suddenly dawned on him.

"Ooooooooh!"

*Line*

Manic snickered and laughed again. Anne glared at him while she said "Kay, Mom, bye." A smile graced her beautiful features, encouraging him even more. "I love you too, Mrs. Nurminy!" he shouted before Anne had a chance to hang up. A beep sounded from the small piece of technology, and Anne practically fainted.

"My Dad's gonna kill you!" she exclaimed. Her sandals clacked on the tile as she headed to the living room in a rage. Manic was grinning like he had won the lottery.

Sonia came down the steps wearing shorts and a t-shirt that was tight, but not too much so. Amy followed, yawning with red eyes. Amy excused herself and left to walk home. Anne hugged her before she took her leave. His sister called everyone's attention to begin.

"Stop talking," she commanded. Sonic took out his ear buds, Tails turned off his tablet, and Manic decided he should probably sit down. He was too fat to stand like this for so long. Rouge and Knuckles snailed their way in, holding hands.

"Happy Birthday to Shade the Guardian."

*Line*

After only the members of the Dark Gems remained in the Mach's living room, the real meeting began. Manic and the boys decided on a name for Sonia. "Garnet" would be her code name for the field. Shadow then introduced the objective for the next three outings. A man named Dr. Eggman (Sonic seemed to know him very well) had built multiple robots that had gone rogue and were, at present, destroying the sewers beneath the city. Shade groaned at this, saying that they would all stink like crap. Sonia retorted with "that won't be a big adjustment for some of us". All the boys silently agreed that they made the right decision to "let" Sonia join.

Tonight, they would defeat the first one. Since only that one's where-abouts were known, they would have to look for the others. Shade sat on the couch and grinned evilly, and Knuckles looked so confused. Sonia helped Sonic pass out flashlights, one for each pair. Tails and Knuckles were one team; Manic and Sonic another; Sonia, Shade, and Shadow the last.

"I'll be leading this excursion," said Shadow. Everyone abruptly objected.

"Why are you the leader, then?"

"What makes you think I'm not leading?"

"I came up with the idea, and I'm the eldest, I should lead by default," Shadow argued. Manic sighed. He hadn't said anything, mostly because he agreed with Shadow. Last time, Shadow seemed to lead pretty well. The senior had dealt with the crisis. Sonic had let his personal feelings affect how he treated the team after Manic had gotten knocked. Sonia was a newbie, Knuckles and Shade were infinitely dumb and imperceptive, and Tails was just too young. Usually it's the strongest who is the leader, as to be able to protect the team, and Manic had doubt Tails could do that. And, Manic decided, he was way too groovy to lead.

Yes, Shadow was the ideal leader.

But, that was an issue for later in the library. Right now, there was a hunk of metal destroying the place where lots of crap was distributed. If it wasn't in the sewers, where would it go? Manic didn't want to know that answer. And, he liked having fresh, clean air, sweep through the house in the morning.

"HEY!" he shouted at the group. "Robot rampaging! Need to Destroy!" Immediately, everyone ran out of the living room, flashlights clutched in hands, and out the door they went. Shadow and Sonic were in the lead, their legs pumping to keep up with one another. Knuckles and Shade were having a manly contest behind Tails, and Sonia took the rear. Manic was left at the way back, due to being the _normal_ one. All of them jogged in silence, trying to be as close to ninjas as possible. Again, just like last time, they were all wearing black. A slight chill crept into Manic's muzzle. Near the end of September, you could tell it was fall in Mobius. During the day, for it was too dark at night to see, the leaves were slowly turning yellow and burgundy. Orange dotted most trees as well.

Halloween was coming up, too, and most of the gang was totally getting ready to get free candy. Sonia would obsess about her costume later in October, and Sonic would throw something together at the last minute, and Manic wouldn't freak out about it at any time in the month. He was just chill about the costume he started near the beginning of the month. He was the middle child in more ways than one.

More than likely, they would use the manhole cover underneath the lamp no one ever fixed. The area was completely dark, so the cameras wouldn't see them. They took a left, jumping into bushes, because seven teenagers all clad in black would look very suspicious. Shadow's stripes glowed very slightly, providing the team with a beacon to follow in the blackness.

Yet another reason why Shadow was fit to be leader.

He heard his sister gasp before ramming into her. They both toppled and Manic's arms shot out, one to land on the ground and the other to catch his sibling. She slammed into his arm, and Manic tensed.

"Thanks," she shakily told him. They both got up and could barely see Shadow's unicorn stripe. Sonia shot off, determined to keep up, while Manic launched out to follow. His track was paying off, because he soon got up with the group. He slowed to a jog, panting from the sudden exertion, and saw Sonic's legs speeding near Shadow's head.

They slowed suddenly, nearing knocking everyone on top of one another, and Knuckles said "Look," although nobody saw or knew what he was pointing to, not seeing his finger. They soon saw it themselves. The entrance was under a dark lamp.

*Line*

The robot screeched against the brick work and used a large hand to throw a big glob of slop. Manic dove to the side and rolled, before grabbing a fallen part, courtesy of Sonic, and charged the monster with Sonic on the other side to distract it. He wacked the circuits cover so it would dent. Knuckles came and smashed it some more, Manic could easily pry it open from on top of the machine. Inside was a sparking tangle of wires. There was a very dim beeping red light near the back of the chamber. This was really a job for Tails.

Manic jumped off and rolled to absorb the impact. Tails was flying above the robot with a, freeze ray? Whatever it was, it was definitely an invention, and Tails was needed to destroy rogue robot number one from the inside. This was his area of expertise, not Manic's.

Manic didn't really have an area of expertise, he was just Manic.

If you don't count being smooth with the ladies, of course. That was definitely a talent.

Tails got thrown off the robot as soon as he got on, while Sonic and Sonia tried spinning into it over and over. Sonia looked a little green, because she doesn't spin the way Sonic does, and she was getting quite dizzy because of it.

Shade and Knuckles led the onslaught next. They went in, punching and doing some wacko made-up martial arts combined with brute force. They barely made a dent.

Manic had an idea then, having to do with his pocket knife. He leapt onto the bot's back and grasped the edge of the panel tightly. It swiveled and metal screeched. He resisted the urge to cover his ears. Using his arms to pull himself up, he clung to the robot as to make it easier to hold on. The bot was going rampant now, malfunctioning to the point of sparking. The boy stabbed his knife into the wires and pulled to get a better look. He slashed at a rainbow of colors. The copper ends sizzled and fizzled. A large puff was heard and smoke puffed in his face. The robot lurched abruptly and crackled with electricity one last time before slumping to the ground.

"Manic?! What's going on up there?" Sonia called up. Everyone was catching their breath. Manic took in gulps of air as he fell to the ground. That was just ridiculous.

*Line*

"What?"

"I told you, I cut the wires and the robot went KA-BLAM-ITY-BLAM-BLAM!"

"Did it now?"

"Yep. You're so jealous."

"Totally."

She laughed over the phone. Manic twirled the pencil in his hand again. His chemistry homework was in front of him, the periodic table of elements sat next to it on his desk. Sonic had already finished her homework and gone to bed, and Sonic had gone over to Tail's house for his Geometry and Physics.

"What's next?" Anne inquired, and Manic heard the scratch of a pen on a piece of paper. As Manic described what the problem was, he let his mind wander. Though tonight had been really fun, it was after eleven and both Manic and Anne were pretty tired. Plus, Anne said she needed to get up at five tomorrow.

Tuesday was one of Manic's least favorite days, right after Monday. At lunch, he had dropped his milk on the floor and it had gone everywhere. Afterwards Courtney had blackmailed him into going with her to homecoming, which Anne didn't know about yet, and to make it worse, Rouge was preggers and Manic did not need that much information about their relationship anyway.

In his hand, the phone buzzed. He was getting another call, and when he glanced, the call was from a certain heliotrope monkey. He frowned, told Anne he had another call from his mother, and answered it. He hated lying.

"Hey, so what are you going to wear? I want to match with you!" He was beginning to hate that voice. "I was thinking of wearing blue, but then I thought that that would look stupid."

Manic sighed. He would find a way for Courtney not to hurt Anne. He was going to protect his friend.

Even if she didn't need protection.

**Please leave a review. I have been very busy, sorry for not updating. And if you believe, I planned to update every Saturday….**

**That worked.**

**Anyway, I wanna know who you guys ship. If you want a shippy moment between two characters, just ask. **

**Have a delicious day.**


	12. Progression

**Sorry fot the long wait peeps, please enlighten me with what you think?**

**Oh**

**Oh**

**Oh**

**Mountain!**

Chapter 12: Progression

With much difficulty, I swallowed my comeback and outburst. This was, on one hand, very surprising. But, I felt betrayed, hurt that he wouldn't tell me.

"I wanted to match with you!" She whined into the phone. I bit my lip as Manic replied to Courtney. He sounded unhappy, which made me feel a little better.

"Does it matter? You are making me do this, you pick."

"Of course it matters. I am not making you do this, you agreed to this."

"So you wouldn't hurt Anne!"

"Your point?"

I turned the phone off at that point. I knew where his house was, he was going to get a beating. Thank you very much, Manic, but I can take care of myself!

*Line*

Shade stared at his phone.

Citrus was moving, and so was he, but not to the same place. He was going to Spagonia, she was headed to Empire City.

Oh, CRUEL WORLD, WHYYYYYY?

So Shade decided to either convince his parents to move to Empire City, because the city was large, only his father didn't have to teach at a University there. He was unsure whether there was a university there at all. Citrus was moving because it was, like, cheaper to live there than in Mobius, or whatever.

Well, it was practically free to live in Spagonia. He grinned and laughed. This would be perfect. Shade clapped his hands and rushed out the door to call Citrus on her home phone. Her parents would pick up.

*Line*

I slammed the door and jammed the key into it, turning it abruptly. It clicked loudly, and with much protest from my aching legs, I set off at a sprint that wasn't near fast enough for my liking. My rage continued to build. Then it actually started to diminish. Manic was sacrificing his own feelings to protect me, and Courtney was making him do it? Tears stung my eyes. Not from just the wind, but I was genuinely touched.

I was still running at full speed, but then a very large boom resonated around me. My legs moved infinitely faster, almost blurring together, and I realized that, due to the air shield building around me, I was about to break the speed of sound.

What the flip just happened?

I tried to get my legs to stop moving, but they weren't listening. I started to scream. The piercing sound echoing in the night made many houses light up. Amy actually came running out as I sped past her. She started after me. The girl could keep up with Sonic for a little while. Tears were being ripped from my eyes, as well as my arms being torn from their sockets. I cried and screamed for a while, before the lake rose up to hit mw in the face.

*Line*

Manic heard the sound almost immediately. It was faint, yes, but Manic did pick it up, and, being the hero he was, he rushed out the window to help the maiden in need.

The scream abruptly stopped and a splash echoed. Manic put on his track spped and plunged into the lake, swimming toward the bubbles. Unlike his brother, Manic loved the water. He grabbed her slim arm and thrust her up to the surface. Their heads broke the calm, and ripples bobbed around them. The female he had saved was breathing heavily and crying. She kept muttering she was going to kill Manic, and that's when he realized.

"Anny?!"

"Manic?!"

He pulled her close and swam to the edge of the lake, sniffing back his running nose. The chill of the water had soaked into their clothes, and Anne was already starting to shiver. He sneezed and pushed Anne onto the shore. She in turn pulled him out. They collapsed into a huddle and breathed.

"What happened?" Manic inquired, holding her close. She swallowed and started.

"Courtney and you are going to homecoming together, and I know why, I was coming over to give you a piece of my mind…" She started. While she finished the story, Manic's eyes kept getting bigger, until finally he thought they would pop out of his head.

"Whaat?"

"You know?" Manic felt terrible. Did she feel like he had betrayed her in some way?

What an awful way for her to find out.

*Line*

She retched again, which just made Knuckles feel worse. Rouge was kneeling over the toilet and heaving out the contents of her stomach.

"Can I get you anything to help?" Knuckles asked, patting a large hand on the bat's shaking back. She groaned again, then sobbed just a little. She used the towel to wipe her mouth, before getting up and hugging her boyfriend.

"Knuckie, I'm fine, do you have any water glasses in this dump?" The echidna tried to smile, but worry took over his face.

Rouge laughed and poured more water into her glass she previously used. As she sipped, Knuckles kept watching her. His stare was intense, and the bat fidgeted nervously.\

"What's wrong, Knuckles?" She asked and set the glass down, annoyed. What was wrong iwth her? Was she fat, could she be showing already? When was the last time she brushed her teeth? This morning? That seemed so long ago. Did she have dragon breath?

"Your beautiful," Knuckles replied, taking her hand and kissing it.

"You ditz, Knuckles."

*Line*

Cream laughed again. Then the laughing turned to sobs. Her mother was in bed, so she could sob as much as she wanted. Today had been one of the badder days. Lunch had been sad, all her classes had been lonely. Even P.E. was depressing. She had no friends, her chao was at home, and she had nothing to do in any of the free time she got any way. While trying to cheer herself up, watching funny videos of humans making fool of themselves, she could not stop thinking about it.

She turned off ehr phone and curled into a ball. If only she had someone to talk to! Amy was asleep, Anne would have to be asleep, Sonia would be asleep, and Rouge was, like, out of the question.

To make it all worse, her aunt was visiting for the first time. She did not like feeling all these illogical emotions. She needed to vent in some way, and she could _not _do that by talking to anyone. And Cream couldn't think of how any way to help.

This situation was just awful, in Cream's opinion.

*Line*

I was crying and sobbing, while Manic tried to calm me down, patting my back and hushing me with words. I could barely breathe, and every one I took just hurt. My brain hurt. My mind blew up. With little to no explanation of what had just happened, and the feeling I felt about how it really was. It was just too much to process at once.

The speed? What was that exactly? What had happened? Why had I lost control of my legs, and why was it so hard for me to breathe?

If one couldn't tell, I was overwhelmed, and scared as a deer caught in headlights.

Well, overwhelmed is an understatement.

MY father's sleek black car was headed down the street, it's lights glowing and lighting his way on this dark night. Wind whipped through my hair and clothes, and a chill crept into my bones. This was rediculous.

"Manic... my... dad's car... coming."

He looked up and spotted it. His arms slid under my knees and around my shoulders, before he carried me out to the street. My father must've spotted this weird occurance, because he slowed down to take a closer look.

The look on my father's face.

He was going to kill that Mach boy after all.

**Sorry it was so short, but I really needed to update it. I felt like I owe you guys, so I will hopefully have another one very vewry soon highlighting homecomeing or halloween. Whichever you prefer.**

**Oh, and what advice do you have for Cream?**

**Shadamy or Sonamy? Vote!**

**Have a Great Day or Night or whatever.**


	13. The Three H's

**Hey Y'all! Happy November...**

**Better Late than never.**

Chapter 13:The three H's

**Part 1: Homecoming**

I typed in more commands for the game. This was stupid! Minecraft was crashing on me, and I was trying to fix it, but it was not working! I might as well have just gotten off and done my biology homework, or perhaps my Algebra, or maybe even my World History homework.

But no, here I was, sitting on my lazy bum, playing a video game and sulking. My chracter had died in lava just a few moments ago, and I was traveling really fast through a cave system, trying to TP to where Amy was, but minecraft did not like me. I shifted in my seat. The crappy homecoming peice that Manic had was already falling apart by lunch, and I was just trying not to think about it. Amy was gathereing my stuff and reveiwing what se could throw out to pick up more when I finally found it. I sighed over our skype call. Reens giggled and told us she found an upside down Zombie. She had been in our choir class since Monday of this week, and her and I had become fast friends, even if she was, like, two or three years older than me. The ways some things work out sometimes.

"Find everything that's important?" I asked, bored out of my mind. Amy muttered an affirmitive, and we went on our merry way.

*Line*

"So what do you suggest I do about it? There ARE NO FRIENDS IN SEVENTH GRADE FOR ME, MILES! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO, HUH?"

"I'll be there in two minutes, Cream, be calm!"

She started ranting once again. But Miles had nothing better to do than to talk to her. Sonic was out on a run, and all the other friends he had via the Dark Gems were either at homecoming or on patrol. So, Miles thought he better help Cream with her, uh, situation. He had the perfect solution, and it would help him as well as her.

He was going to help her skip 7th grade. This was a flawed plan. But, Cream was very intelligent and a quick learner ever since she was eight, as far back as Tails could remember anyway. But it would mean she would be with him and they would start High Shcool Together, whicch was good in his perspective.

He would work out the kinks as they came up, because he couldn't anticipate what would go wrong. He had never done this before after all.

*Line*

Manic danced some more, then he got a drink, then when a slow dance came on, he would go to the bathroom, desperately searching for a way to cure the disease known as boredom.

**Part 2: Halloween**

Little Children ran up and down the streets, and Rouge laughed from the Mach's Driveway. The gang was sitting around a fire, handing out candy to kids, and roasting marshmallows. Rouge was wearing a warm cloak to deal with the cold, and she was sort of self concious about the whole "I am gonna get a baby bump" thing, becasue both parents had decided to keep it. Rouge's mother had been able to get through High School being a single mother, so why couldn't she do it with her supportive, although quite unobservant, boyfriend?

Anne held a bag of candy, sometimes tossing one into a pumpkin(or trying to anyway) and yelling "Flying CANDYYYY". Sonia was hiding in the bushes, decked out in make up and clothes to scare the little ones who dared to come up to the conspicuous bush. Many came, not many screamed, which was a disappointment to the magenta hedgehog. Amy was sitting next to Rouge "talking" about the people at school. Her costume was a bee, which had made Cream and Tails both laugh until they cried. Sonic ran around the neighborhood collecting as much candy as he could and even filled it three times.

Their poor neighbors.

Manic and Shadow were both on Patrol until 10:30, and some people were really bummed they couldn't join the rest of the group.

"Anne, stop eating their candy. It's not nice," Sonia protested. Anne retorted with "This is Sonic's candy," and went on with her muskateers.

Well played, Anne, well played.

She was wearing a pirate costume that one guy had claimed would result in her getting sexually abused, but she hadn't even punched the guy, so most people thought she didn't take him seriously. It ran to Anne's knees, and she was wearing short wedged boots to compliment it. The black matched the black, and that was that. It was chilly out, so she, too, was wearing a cloak thing, it was black to match her outfit, and it wasn't as thick as Rouge's.

She just liked black tonight, didn't she?

And Amy wondered why. Anne was usually all about those colors. And the reason she gave her was that it was Halloween, adn it was fun even to spook friends.

*Line*

The fun ended with Knuckles barfing in the Mach's toilet, Rouige falling asleep, and Manic burnig some marshmallows. They all agreed it was too late for any more important trick-or-treaters, so Anne was walked home, and the parent couple was driven home, while Amy was jogging home with Shadow. She needed to get home fast to go to sleep fast and then wake up the next morning fast as well. She needed it done and NOW!

So Aleena put all three of her kids to bed and fell asleep on the couch herself. The next morning, Sunday morning, Sonia made pancakes adn French Toast for Breakfast and Manic cleaned the house while Sonic made some new candy wrapper sculptores and went oin a sugar high in the garge screwing in pot screws.

Monday, everyone was exhausted. Nobody knew how Anne was so peppy, becasue everyone was like sloths.

SLOTHS!

**Part 3: Home**

To be clear, Citrus' new home was, in fact, in Empire City, and Shade and her had exchanged numbers before she left over a week ago. The worst part s not getting to see her until she attended the University his Father worked at. Shade was confused about how this would work out, but he had faith in the idea that he would see her again.

*Line*

"Rouge, you had to bring your dresser?"

"I don't understand why not, I am going to be changing here."

Knuckles thudded the peice fo f urniture onto the ground and frowned again. They were in Rouge's new room, a rug rolled up in the corner, a stack of bed sheets piled into the closet. On Angel Island, the window had a great view of the surrounding area, including the body of water beneath it. The sun sparkled on the lake, glinting off the tiny waved caused by the cool breeze. Rouge was certain she was going to love it here. She may also love the residents, too.

Just a thought.

Rouge had decided this a while ago, but she was set on keeping the baby, for her to raise. She wouldn't even think of abortion, and her first doctor's appoinment had come and gone. Rouge also decided, with Knuckles approval, that she would move in with her boyfriend and that once Rouge started showing to the point of no concealment, she would switch to online courses. Junior Year would be a busy year for her.

Very busy indeed.

**Well, that's it for this chapter you guys. PLEASE REVEIW! **

**Sonamy or Shadmamy? You Choose!**

**Oh, and I am changing Rouge's age to 17 instead of 15 or 16. She is a junior with Knuckles.**


	14. Filler, I Guess

**Well, Here we are, at Chapter 14! This is very exciting!**

**I would love to hear your thoughts or ideas.**

Chapter 14:

Rouge looked up from the paper that Anne had brought to her.

"This is your mother's research from when she was pregnant with you?" Rouge scanned the essay again. This was very informative about what signs meant what and what you could and couldn't do. Rouge especially found the exercise portion of it very informative.

"Yeah, there was a history of complications and problems with her family. My aunt actually lost two babies that way. Hence the only child thing." At this she had meant herself, but the bat couldn't pick up on it right away. "And after I came out healthy, she wrote this paper and put it in my scrapbook in case I needed it one day. Which was quite handy, I should think," Anne smiled and bid the bat a good day, rubbing her hands together to warm them. Her grey coat faded into the winter mist. Rouge shut the door and crossed the main room to the couch, where she opened her laptop and continued her research on virtual high school. Now that her friend had gotten one part of the need research for one part, she needed to do the other.

Now around eight weeks along, because that's how you measure how far along one is, Rouge was glad to see she hadn't even started to show yet. The laptop rested against her thigh, the notebook against the other, and a pen pressed in her hand, she licked her lips and studied the essay.

_Most articles advise mothers to continue exercise throughout their pregnancy, due to the fact that maintaining a healthy exercise routine can help the mother feel her best. Exercise will not hurt your baby, but you will tire more easily than you did before. Your body is pumping 50% more blood, so your heart is working harder, too. Your breathing will get heavier also, because you are exchanging gases for yourself and your baby. _

Rouge was about done there, that answered her questions about her ability to stay in althetics. She would switch out of Althetics as soon as Monday crawled around. It was a Saturday morning, with mist surrounding the island and most of Mobius. The fog had sanken so low, that visibility was about 100 feet. Most cars were not on the road.

Knuckles came to sit behind her on the couch, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the top of her head. "Hello, Dearest."

" Hey, Knuckie,you okay?" There was nod against her curls and he belched slightly, blowing away from his girlfriend. She smiled. He made a comment about breakfast, which Rouge had made. He sighed and told her it really was delicious. The French Toast had been a big surprise for him. She couldn't think of anything better to do than to make something she knew she could eat at the moment. Her "morning sickness" was getting better than it had been, because she now knew that sipping cold water helped.

She shut the laptop and leaned back against the red echidna. It was a cuddly type of day.

*Line*

Amy hugged her pillow tighter. Rouge was gone, left to her baby daddy's house, and Daniel was always working. She felt as if she had no one to talk to. Untamed pink hair lay all over the bed and the worst part is that shehad filled up her diary and hadn't found a new one yet. She was sure she had another one _somewhere._

There was no sun, no happiness in the cheery room, and it was completely still, save for the breathing of the hedgehog. Despite protests, her brothr had gone to work anyway, so she had the house all to herself.

There was a ring of the doorbell, so Amy pulled her hair back with a head band, and jumped up to go get it.

At the door was Cream.

"Cream," Amy smiled and breathed a sigh of releif. "Come in." The bunny entered and hugged her friend. The kitchen was w3here the main door opened, and the counter tops were sparkly white, as they had been the night before, the floor spotless, cabinets closed, sink empty.

"Oh, Amy, did you eat yet?" asked Cream, her eyebrows curved down for a moment and a small frown in place of a grin.

"Yes, I just cleaned right afterwards. Don't worry, Cream." The grin returned. "Can I ask you for help on something."

"Sure! I'll be happy to help!"

So they got to work.

*Line*

Here they were, at the end, and the Christmas Lights were up and they looked amazing. Cream squealed a little. Amy was very glad that she had discovered a stress revliever for the time being. It was too cold to paint outside for a long period of time now, and the house stank for days on end when she painted inside. So, she could "paint" with pencils, or crayons. Amy cupped her hands arpund her cup of hot chocolate as Cream sipped hers.

No matter what anybdy said, you needed parents. Amy wished she had hers still. Daniel was not the same as a father, and now she didn't even have an older female to look up to living in the same house as her. With boys or girly things or even with just plain advice, parents could give you that stuff. A brother who was always working and a pregnant 17 year old could not. Amy longed for parents, and she wondered if Rouge ever felt the same way.

Or Cream without a father, like that crazy crocidile was the closest thing she could get to a father. But at least things were looking up for her. Vanilla had recently started dating Vector, causing Cream and Vector to spend more time with one another.

What Amy wanted, was someone who thought like a fifteen year old boy, or at least was one at some point, and Daniel could be there 24/7 like one of her friends would.

Like Shadow would.

He had always been there for Amy, and he had told her faker was a faker every time Sonic had ticked her off. He had made her at least feel better when she was feeling down. He _had_ always been there.

What a peculiar thing.

*Line*

I ran through the mist, little droplets stung my face. My shoes thudded against the ground over and over again. Sort of like how it went through my mind over and over again.

The large resonated boom, the helpless feeling I had experienced upon not being able to control my legs, the tear of the wind. My mind thinks logically, and not being able to come up with a solution, that messed with me big time. I was even considering going to the other genius in the group, or maybe even the senior. Why hadn't this happened before, ever? What had changed for this to happen?

Then it dawned on me.

I had never been the althettic type, nor the "Play outside" type of kid. But, with cheerleading you have to be strong, and fast, and flexible, so I thought I was getting there. But, maybe once I reached a certain point of ability, the, what did Sonic call it, uh, " special talent" actually surfaced bacause my body was fit enough to handle it?

I am a freaking genius.

Giddy and nearling sqealing with joy, I sprinted the rest of the way home. I had figured it out! Well, a possible explanation. BUt, STILL!

The ground thuddded under my feet, not from my footfalls, though. Which frightened me, because earthquakes weren't known to happen in Mobius. The thudding continued rythmically, once, the resonation was so large and close, I lifted from the ground, without doing anything. Something was coming, because I had slowed down to a complete stop and the sound and vibrations continued to get louder. Could I handle myself alone if it was one of the giant robots the guys had been blabbering about?

Well, the thing didn't give me a lot of time to mull over this question, because a dark and looming figure stood stoic in the distance for a moment. Then, what happened to be it's foot falls started to shake the ground faster. It had spotted me and was appoaching fast.

Well, crap.

*Line*

it was a lazy kind of day for Sonia. She lay on the couch smiling and hugging a pillow while watching TV. Her pajamas were warm and had little coke bottles on them. Now the weather was cold, not chilly, and Mobius was expecting snow pretty soon. From what Sonia could tell, all of it's residents were super excited for Chrismas, now that Halloween had passed. Stores had forgotten about Thanksgiving for the most part and blew up Christmas in your face.

It was sort of annoying, but Christmas was the best part of the year, in Sonia's opinion.

**HAHAHAHAHA!**

**THANK YOU FOR READING!**

**HAVE A GREAT DAY!**

**Happy Thankgiving!**


	15. Thanksgiving

Chapter 15: Thanksgiving

**Thanks! All of you! Happy Thanksgiving to you all!**

**I want this to be y'all's story as much as mine. That's why I ask things like "who do you guys ship?" or "Shadamy or Sonamy?"**

**I would love your feedback, why else would I ask questions?**

Amy cut some more ham off the hunk in the middle.

"Oh, Amy dear I would've gotten you some more," Mrs. Nurminy said, pouring herself some more cider. The bronze liquid flowed into the glass, fizzing. Anne nodded, her mouth full of salad, probably meaning "me too".

"It's fine," Amy replied, sliding the ham off the large fork onto her plate, before sitting back down. The potatoes were steaming in front of her, and next to her sat Anne, and across was the dark blue hedgehog's mother, and at the head was Mr. Nurminy, large and very happy. In the middle was a small turkey and smoking ham.

They ate, and the sparkling apple cider was soon emptied and disposed of. Anne finished, and set to work with the ham, cutting off pieces and laying them in a large storage container, until, finally, there was only a bone left, but it was covered in meat still. Anne's father smiled and nodded, telling her that would be good for split pea soup. Amy didn't remember the last time she had that.

On the other side of her, Danny thanked Mr. and Mrs. Nurminy again for their hospitality. They nodded, saying it was sno problem and he was very welcome.

For desert they had pyumpkin pie with whipped cream on top, but this was an hour after the meal, most had stuffed themselves, because it was thanksgiving dinner. When everything was cleaned up, it wasdusk outside, and the two girls went up to Anne's room to talk about girlie stuff. A great deal of laughter was heard downstairs.

"So how are you?" Anne started shoving her blankets out smooth. "Why don't you take a seat?"

"Thanks," Amy sat and crossed her legs, Anne plopped down next to her with her sketch pad. Anne started sketching and Amy started talking.

"So you remember the other day when manic was talking about our-"

"Yes, that was over a month ago."

"Well, remember how Sonic said he liked cherries right after Sally was referred to one?" A nod from Anne "Well, I thought.."

"You were referred to two of them, Amy. Sonic's brain couldn't have processed that that quickly," Anne pointed out, glancing up from the paper to her eyes and back again.

"How would you know?" inquired Amy, hope bubbling inside her, or maybe that was the cider.

"Manic is a tad slow on things, and they are brothers, don't you think they would have like tendincies? Plus, Sonia has said that while they have quick action minds, they're "girl" processing brains are way slow." Anne explained, then sighed, before rubbing at a spot with her eraser.

Amy smiled at this and nodded, then"Is it bad to like two people?"

"I don't see a problem with it, as long as you don't date two people." She stopped, " Hold on, which two people do you like?"

Amy, deciding that they were best friends to share thanksgiving with one another, replied hesitantly with "Sonic, and ... Shadow"

Anne laughed, then squealed with her. "I can get why, Shadow's like, way hot!" Amy became flustered and hid her face in the sheets. They were soft and newly washed. Anne chuckled and patted her shoulder."It was meant to be a joke, Amy!"

*Line*

Mom craacked open another bottle of soda and poured into the juice, then she poured some into a cup and guzzled it. Her so called "boyfriend" had just broken up with her. The ice cream was popped open in front of her, and music was blasting from her head phones. She went over the scenerio again and again, her kids could tell because she kept muttering the things said.

That's when Manic and Sonia had a great idea.

Although Manic had trouble getting them down from upstairs, he carried his drumset down to the living room and Sonia grabbed her keyboard. Sonic got in on it and grabbed his guitar. While Manic and Sonia set up his drums, Sonic want to go get their mother. The green brother twisted things, and Sonia set up a lovely chair for their mother to sit in.

She sat down, blue eyes red from the tears. Manic spun his sticks and thumped down on his stool to play.

The mother realized what they were doing and smiled broadly.

She really did love her children.

*Line*

THERE WAS NO THANKSGIVING IN SPAGONIA!

HOW COULD THIS EVEN HAPPEN!

NO FEASTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

*Line*

Rouge burped slightly.

"Excuse me," she said politely, before resuming her feast. There were potatoes, geen beans, and turkey, that's it. The table seemed lonely. But Rouge was thoroughly enjoying herself. Knuckles sat across from her, grinning widely and watching his girlfriend chow down on the food they had prepared together.

It was like their first Thanksgiving.

**Please Review! Happy Thanksgiving! **

**I am thankful for all of my readers!**

**Have a wonderful week!**


	16. The Problem

Chapter 16:

**Well, Boy or girl?**

Inside the school was nice and toasty. In fact, I had to remove my coat and sweater in every class, but outside was absolutely freezing. If there were any precipitation, it would be snow. Ice crystals would form on the grass and tree branches. In the cafeteria, there were so many windows, it felt like food wouldn't have gone bad just sitting there for quite a while.

Football season had been over quite a while ago, leaving the guys with a lot of more free time on Friday's. With Christmas Break not very far away (two weeks!), everyone was buzzing about it.

"Morning," Manic smiled at me as I stepped onto the bus Monday morning. I sat down next to him with a thump and Amy climbed on after me. I grinned back. We talked about many things on the way to school.

The bus pulled into the bus loop before I knew it, and when I stepped down, little white specs were falling from a light grey sky, softly covering leafless branches. A gasp escaped from my mouth and some people laughed behind me with delight. My boot touched the icy sidewalk, and promptly slipped.

I should really be more careful.

*Line*

When Rouge woke up that morning, she felt something was off. The bat found out exactly what was up when she looked in the mirror after her shower. She was showing,

Needless to say, it was about time. And when her boyfriend noticed, he thought for sure she was just fat. The sweater she wore covered her tiny bump quite effectively.

In 1st period, now Physics, the snowing outside had become quite troublesome. The wind was pesky and persistent. A snowstorm had unexpectedly descended upon Mobius suddenly. The storm was intesifying so rapidly, by the end of 3rd period, rumors were spread about school, canceling to allow students to get home safely. rouge met up with Knuckles in the hallway fter 4th period, where he kissed her on the forehead and gave her his coat to make sure she wasn't too cold. The fluffy orange winter outerwear definitely helped, and the bat was very glad she wore pants today.

"Isn't it cold outside?" Sonic commented as the couple sat down. The blue speedster didn't like the cold, as well as suffering hydrophobia.

"It's around ten degrees Fahrenheit," Anne replied, reading off her phone. Teenagers in alternating versions of winter protexction lined the table.

Somebody decided to bring out brownies at this point, getting many thankful phrases and compliments from the group, including Rouge. Chocolate.

"What do you guys think about the whole sudden blizzard thing? Doesn't it seem suspicious?" Manic inquired, munching on some chicken and potatoes.

"It's raining dust, I think that's pretty delicious," Knuckles agreed, or tried to, one massive hand around his soda, the other gripping his girlfriend's hand.

'Where else could it come from?" Manic pointed out. Everyone, besides Rouge, didn't even pay attention to Knuckles' error. She quietly corrected him. How else was he supposed to learn?

"I believe a cold front came from the north, Holoska's doing something weird up there right?"

"The aren't doing anything special. The sudden storm could originate from a cold front, true, but I think it was.. " Manic was cut off as Shadow grumbled "Eggman."

"Why of course!" Rouge exclaimed. "but why on mobius would he need so much snow?"

"Egg-man?" Anne was quite frankly puzzled. The "new" girl didn't know _a lot._ They ate in relative silence for a few moments. Then, Anne abruptly shot up from the table and ran to the bathrooms. Amy shoved back her seat and ran to follow, with Shadow showing signs of eye movement. Rouge giggled and squeezed her boyfriends hand. She then shivered. It seemed to be getting colder by the minute.

That's when the power went out.

*Line*

"When did the ancient echidna race lock up Chaos?" Tails asked. The two were in the library, studying.

"Um, I've no idea, is this really relevant?" Cream retorted.

'kit's part of what we've learned, so you have to be caught up when you skip a grade," Tails explained, tapping the sheet of paper in front of him.

A droning sound interrupted anything Cream was about to say, followed by a complete and total blackout. Tails grabbed Cream's hand (or was it the other way?) and screaming commenced. Cream was a little frightened, but screaming was a stupid thing to do, and Tails knew Cream was far from stupid.

The kids were led out from everywhere and into the cafeteria, which had a lot of light coming through the windows, snowing or not. The staff seemed worried, and the chaos didn't help.

An email was sent out from the principal's phone for parents to come and please pick up their child, they were sorry for the inconvenience.

So Tails and Cream sat by the windows and continued to study. They would need to catch up on at least 140 more years of history for the bunny to be caught up once she skipped.

Don't ask Tails how that was going to work, because he didn't have a clue.

*Line*

Manic was worried, to say the least. Darkness would envelope many classrooms, including offices, science rooms with chemicals, and some computer labs.

His mother's office would have one window, and windows lined the school so hallways would be lit well enough. He was also worried about his friends that suddenly ran off. Shadow had seemed grumpier ever since Eggman was brought up. Now some teens were leaving to outside to see the snow up close and personal.

"Guys," Amy called, running toward them. "The power's gone!"

"We noticed," grumbled Sonic. Amy's smile wavered. "What do you suppose the school will do?"

"Where's Anne?" Manic asked her.

"Emergency."

"I see."

Mom came into the cafeteria at the time. She used a megaphone to announce what they were going to do.

"Attention students, the staff and I have decided that anyone who wants to leave can" A large whoop commenced. "But you must write your full real name on the paper before you'll be AOK! Stay Warm!"

"GO Principal Mach!"

Anne came back amongst the commotion. She was a tad flustered, but otherwise she seemed just fine.

"Emergency?" Manic looked sideways at her and smirked, but she shot him a look.

"Don't even go there Manic." She sighed and her face fell into her hands. Everyone was flooding out through the doors to sign the sheet so they could leave. Snow continued to fall and the crowd became qa mass of hoods. Knuckles and Rouge stood and asked if anyone wanted a ride home. Rouge would be driving of course. Sally raised her hand and stood piling her lunch together again. Manic smiled, he probably wouldn't go home until the last student had been safely taken care of.

Oh, well.

"Line"

"Rose" Shadow startled the girl. "I'll take you home."

"Don't you ride a motorcycle?" Rose argued. Despite her protests, she was swinging her backpack on and shoving her phone in her back pocket.

"I always carry an extra helmet, you'll be fine," he assured her. Shadow swung his side bag over his shoulder. His motorcycle was one of the things he was most proud of. A sleek black coat had been painted on by hand, his hand, and he had been riding to and from school all year (whenever he wanted).

When Amy saw it, she nearly squealed.

"Cool!" she grinned, "You're serious? I get to ride on your bike?"

"Motorcycle," Shadow corrected. "And, yeah." With Amy getting on behind him. After snapping the helmet on, she wrapped her arms around his chest and laughed with excitement. Shadow smirked.

"Hold on tight."

*Line*

Sonic watched with envy as they sped off, Amy screaming with delight. And perhaps it was more than they got to and he did not.

"Rouge," he called, "would you hold on a minute? i need to ask my mom."

She nodded, and the speedster set a course directly to where his mom was standing. For an "old" lady, she had a remarkable fashion sense.

"Hey mum," Sonic began. "Can I get a ride home with my friends?"

"Sonia has a key."

Of course Sonia had the key. She always had the key. his sister handed _Manic_ the key.

"Radical," he said, grabbing his board from under the table. He spun the key around his finger. It became a circle of silver and white. The charm was a square (council of four) with separate colors representing each member.

They should get a new key chain, maybe something blue.

So the group left Anne all alone at the table, crunching snow beneath their feet on the way to Knuckles' truck. Manic threw down down his skateboard and pushed off. There would be snow, not ice. Around half way down the sidewalk, it seemed like he changed his mind.

Though, he still might beat Sonic home, they did have to drop Sally off first.

*Line*

I sat there for a moment, not knowing what to do, since everybody up and left. The cafeteria was in complete chaos, but I felt incredible lonely.

I noticed Manic was coming back, and he was walking fast toward the lunch table, moving flawlessly through the crowd.

That's one bizarre skateboard, just saying. He sat down.

"Sorry if everyone left ya," he started.

"Nobody likes me enough to stay, I guess," I joked. He looked taken aback.

"That's not true!" his voice cracked halfway through the protest.

"Thank you, Manic but I'll just have to wait for my dad here, so, don't you need to do something?"

"I'll make it. See ya, Anne," Manic said with a wave. When outside, he dropped his skateboard and pushed off the ground, heading down the walkway. He pulled his hood up and made sure his back pack was on tight before he disappeared around the corner.

I stared at my hands and watched as they lay still with nothing to do for once. Everyone had truly left. All except Sonia, who was over with her mother anyway. Which led my wandering mind to another place. I didn't know Mrs. Mach was the principal. Given her involvement, I should've known by now, but maybe I was just too stupid to see it. Ishook myself. I was _not_ stupid, I was just uninformed, ignorant.

An idea dawned on me, and I reached into my baggrabbing soft yarn and my thin cold crochet hook. The hook went through the loop and yarn wrapped around it before the hook dived into the next available bottom loop. The hat was white and green. I knew how to do stripes, that's about it.

A shiver went up my spine. I was freezing, I had only brought my hoodie to school, not anticipating snow or even the power outage, but it seemed the temperature continued to drop.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I shoved the hat in my bag.

**I'm here.**

**Okay, Daddy, brt**

I made my way over to Sonia to give her a hug and I ran out to the parking lot where my dad was waiting, staring down at his phone. He looked up and smiled.

On the car ride home, I glanced out the window to see a cat gliding on the frozen lake. The white fur allowed him to blend in, but the gray tipped hair and blue scarf tipped me off. His dance looked to have snowflakes winding and twirling around him, following his fluid movements. It was beautiful. His scarf seemed to flow against the wind.

I wished I knew how to skate like that.

*Line*

He shoved off the sidewalk again. He needed to get home, then wait for Sonic, then go patrolling for whatever was causing this storm. he should probably take someone with him, or at least tell Shadow what he wanted to do.

But Manic didn't really want to.

*Line*

Tails name was called over the megaphone. Cream looked up with a shocked expression and grabbed Tails' arm.

"Please don't leave me," Cream whispered, her voice wobbling. The tiny rabbit probably wouldn't admit it, but she was scared, and without Tails, she would be alone, too.

"Miles Prower, your guardian is here," they repeated.

"Cream," Tails looked backwards at the bunny. "I can't stay, I'll get in trouble." His expression was one of confusion and stress.

Her hand slid down in defeat. She didn't know what to do, or what was going on, and her friend was her only comfort. Tears wet her muzzle in shadow. She definitely didn't want to get him into trouble.

Arms encircled her, gently patting her on the head twice. It quieted the worries, calmed her nerves, if only for a few seconds. They pulled away.

Tails walked away, leaving Cream behind. She curled into a ball and tried to remember the comfort, tand that everything would be okay.

If only she could feel like that all the time.

*Line*

The snow battered against Manic's side. His running nose and numb cheeks were proof of his obvious chill. The hood of the green hedgehog was up and secure to protect his ears. His house was just up ahead, and getting out of a truck in front was none other than Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Take Sally home first?" Manic shouted, shoving his hands in his pockets to find the key.

Sonic looked up and glared at him. The blue hedgehog's sneakers slid across the sidewalk. Manic had been mistaken, there was ice. Never mind when Anne had slipped and leaned agaisnt him. He should've remembered that. The only way he got home before Sonic is the shortcut too narrow for a car.

It consisted of a bunch of railings over mud, now covered in snow, but you get the point.

"My mad skills amaze even me sometimes," Manic grinned.

"Put your stuff inside and lock the door," Sonic looked grim. "I know what's causing this storm."

Manic obeyed and came back out with his board and a hat to go below his hood.

"What is it?"

" A series of machines. We saw one on the way here. They are devastating the city," Sonic whispered, his thumb under his nose. "We gotta save Mobius."

Well, that's just brilliant.

**THANKS for reading! Please review and tell me what you think! The Oc (the cat) belongs to jweaks2016. THANKS SO MUCH GUYS!**

**Oh, and Happy New Year!**


	17. Anti-Climactic

**Chapter 17: Anti-Climactic**

**Dark Gen Time! And it's never too late to say something about Sonamy or Shadamy thing, it is a high school story. **

Sonic despised not being in charge, and he hated that his own brother would vote for someone other than him to lead.

He skidded to stop and answered his watch.

"Sonic here," he said to it, tapping the speak button. The blue hedgehog was standing on train tracks, awaiting the signal.

"This is Tails," his watch shouted. "Get ready, over." Sonic bent down and stared at the tree he would run up to get onto the X-tornado. The fortresses were hiding above the clouds, and Tails, his partner, had found one.

"Mission is a go."

Sonic shot off and ran at full speed to the tree and up it, racing 50 feet in the air. His hand lowered ever so slightly and caught onto the wing. His arm jerked and the rest of him slammed into the hunk of metal, shock bolting through him. Snow and little ice crystals whipped at his face, wetting it uncomfortably. Wind rushed past him, blowing into his nose, mouth, and ears. Like sticking your face out of a car on the highway. Only with his entire body.

It was awesome.

*Line*

Diamond thudded against the wing, and Quartz breathed a sigh of relief. It worked. The pair raced up into the clouds and broke through a thick layer. A glass cover protected Quartz from the weather on slot, but he figured Diamond must be freezing out there. He hadn't even glanced to coat.

Quartz really hope he knew what he was doing. His friends and many other people's lives are at stake. The kitsune review the plan in his head.

The snow buffeted the plane and Quartz continued on his path. The storm should get stronger near to the machines. The rest of the teams were already on their part of the mission. Whether it was damage control or just patrolling.

Ahead of them, a very large grey shape loomed fuzzily in the fog. Quartz stared at the fortress. The giant metal structure was barfing out snow and ice. The X- tornado was chilled at an alarming speed. It was twisted and slammed against wind currents. Only Quartz superior flying skills kept then aloft for the two minutes before the plane flipped and crashed on the machine. Diamond jumped off immediately and went to go check on his fox friend, who was now buried beneath his own handiwork.

"Diamond,need a little help here!" Quartz called from beneath the plane. The speedster rushed to assist. Their arms linked, and Diamond pulled. For a split second, Quartz felt as though his appendages would be pulled from their sockets. Then, pain shoot up from his ankle.

"Oh crap, Sonic, my ankles stuck!" Quartz cried in an urgent whisper.

"What do you suggest I do? I can't do this without you bro." Diamond rotated his friend, before tugging in a desperate attempt to free him.

Quartz winced and told him to stop and call for back up. Diamond sat down close to him while he radioed headquarters.

"What's the sitch?" Garnet answered, then slightly giggled. She had always wanted to say that.

"Sonia, we need some help, Tails is stuck and I can't get the control panel to work without him."

"Diamond we are on a mission, please refer to us by our code names."

"Yes, yes, but we need help."

"He's on his way," Garnet replied. Slightly annoyed.

"Thank you," Diamond gave an exasperated sigh. Quartz put his head in his arms. He left Cream for this? He thought his adoptive parents had come to pick him up early, but it was Knuckles and Rouge, and then he remembered his guardians had gone on a trip with his little sister for her birthday. He had chosen not to go.l, and he promised he would look after himself.

A promise he realized he couldn't keep. That didn't stop him from trying though. For one, he didn't want to disappoint his new family.

"Hold on, Quartz," Diamond said then glanced down the hallway the door had just opened up to. Badniks were crawling out from every nook and crannies.

"I hear you needed some back up!" Emerald yelled. His hover board crashed into a badnik, and he twisted to whop another's head off. The hedgehog picked up the board, he flipped into another to crack it.

Emerald could definitely manage himself in a fight, but it made Quartz wonder where he had learned it all. Meanwhile, Diamond was curling and uncurling into spin dashes to crash the many and much needed security and protection. Quartz shouted for Emerald's help. The green hedgehog gladly gave it. Crawling underneath the wreckage, he cleared the debri capturing the little fox's foot, after which Quartz eased himself out. Emerald emerged with a grin. The pair rejoined Diamond inside the fortress.

"You guys busy? No? Okay, good, we need to disable this and now, it's getting really cold," Diamond complained. Quartz, with a slight limp, made his way over to the glowing control panel. Inside the structure, the wind was non-existent, and most of the cold that was created couldn't do much harm with the generates working and giving off heat as much as they did. It was actually warm. Pleasant to have a change in scenery. From white to really really light gray.

*Line*

While Quartz fiddled with the computer, Diamond kept watch with Emerald.

"So Diamond, what's going on? You're steaming right now bro," Emerald patted his brother on the back. Diamond shoved him off.

"It's none of your business," he retorted, crossing his arms. Diamond leaned against the wall and mentally slapped himself.

"You and I have been friends for a very long time, and I know when something's wrong. You wanna talk about it, at all?"

"I want to keep watch, keeping Quartz undisturbed so we can get out of here and go home."

"What will you do then?Pout some more?" Emerald teased. This made the teenager even more annoyed, so he kept his mouth shut for once.

"Does it have anything to do with Amy, and Shadow?" Emerald questioned with a mischevious glint in his eye. He then became serious and touched a hand to Diamond's shoulder. "Seriously, bro, whatever it is, I can help somehow."

"You wouldn't be able to help me, you know just about as much as I do when it comes to girls..."

"Just about..."

"So only a girl could really help me understand anything that Amy's doing? Only problem is, Sonia will laugh at me, and mom doesn't know what's going on. I don't have any other close ladies in my life, besides maybe Sal, but what does she know?" Diamond ranted. His face was red with embarrassment, but that only made him hesitate. Starting to breathe a little heavy, Diamond continued to explain.

"Bro," Emerald began after his brother had finished, "I got friends on the other side."

"If you break out into song, I'll kill you."

"Just a joke. But Anne knows Amy pretty better than anyone, I'm sure she would know. Are you sure you want to get into this? It is incomprehensible how females think. We'll never be able to understand," Emerald warned. The brothers then spotted some trouble.

Emerald laughed and sped over to it. While he was taking care of that, Quartz finished getting all he could from the database, so then Diamond smashed the computer.

"Done, now how are we getting out of here?"

"I think I got a solution," Emerald lopped off the last one's head.

"With as little destruction as possible, if you please," Quartz told him.

"Of course not," he agreed and then promptly said "Get on."

*Line*

They rode the currents swirling around the now powered off machine.

"Quartz, radio HQ and tell them we are done," Emerald had said to them as he shoved the board toward their feet. "I have one more stop to make." He was just glad he could feel what his feet were doing. "Get going."

"Leave you here?" Diamond had asked with concern.

"I'll be fine," he had promised. "I'll be able to still escape in time."

"Escape?"

Emerald smiled nodded. He didn't tell them but he needed blow this thing to smithereens to ensure it never came back. The bomb was still cold in his jacket, as soon as he would take it away from his body heat, the thing would start ticking.

He would have exactly thirty seconds before the whole thing went boom.

Hopefully he had given Diamond and Quartz enough time to clear the blast.

*line*

The last thing Amy wanted to do today was homework, she was absolutely exhausted and just wanted to think, maybe daydream. A nap sounded extremely good right now.

The pink hedgehog was lying on her bed, eyes closed, just waiting and enjoying the quiet bliss. Law and relaxing position, she ran over the last moments in her mind. Shadow's motorcycle has been really fun. It was great to have adrenaline rush. And Shadow even chuckled with her once she didn't hear it, but felt it. She did have her arms around his chest. He looked hot in leather.

Amy smiled and was lost in thought. That is, until her brother got home.

The door was thrown open, slam shut, &amp; his bags were dumped across the room. He shoved his jacket in the closet and stormed into the kitchen. Amy, startled, jumped off her bed and ran to the room. Her brother was drinking straight from the milk carton, and then, when he finished, he crushed it in his hand.

"Danny? Are you okay?" she asked him cautiously.

Amy? I didn't know you were home," Danny looked guiltily at the mess he had left in his wake.

"School cancelled. Are you going to tell me what happened?" As she said this, the girl was pulling over a chair for her brother. Her hand patted the wood. Daniel accepted a invitation, but not before grabbing the tub of ice cream and two spoons. Just the sight of the chocolatey frozen treat made her drool a little bit.

"Sure," he pried off the lid and skimmed the top with his spoon. He ate it and sighed. "I just got fired for my coworkers mistakes. I'm so sorry Amelia." Man, did he really have to use her full name?

"Danny, you can get through this, there are other jobs!" Amy encouraged.

*line*

Time was ticking, and Emerald ran at his fastest speed toward the door. In a matter of seconds, he was at the edge of a giant spout, but he wasn't far away enough. Not yet.

Shoving off with his feet, he went over the side. Wind tore at all his clothes and his quills. His back was toward the ground. Emerald wasn't afraid. The fall wouldn't kill him, it would be the deceleration that would break his bones, crush his organs, leave his body crippled, but if something interrupted a straight fall causing his deceleration and pushed or pulled him the other way. Something like, oh, maybe an explosion?

He started to laugh maniacally. Emerald felt very proud of himself, even if it didn't work, he had a backup plan.

The time would run out in...

3

2

1

He heard an explosion behind him and he reached out to cover his ears with his hands. And then waves of heat hit him and threw him to the right. The impact of Emerald hitting the newly fallen snow knocked the air out of his lungs, but otherwise, it seems he could move just fine.

"Holy Cow! That was Totally Wicked!" He shouted. His first solo mission, and he didn't blow it. He chuckled at himself.

Ha ha! In Garnet's face!

Emerald stood up and beheld the scene behind him. There was a trail where he had landed. Even Better! Destruction!

*Line*

Back at headquarters, aka the Mach's house, Garnet was checking satellite readings of the weather above Mobius, looking for a possible hot spots for more snow fortresses.

"Yo, Garnet!" Her fingers froze above the keyboard. The hedgehogs head jerked at her watch.

"Manic Mach, you had me worried sick! What is wrong with you? Leaving the two boys out there while it EXPLODED!" Garnet yelled, tears of relief coming to get eyes, despite her best efforts.

Opal came in through the door, straightening his inhibitor rings. What did he want? He leaned over Garnet and shouted into the mike, "Emerald, I need you on a mission in two minutes. Get off your bum and shake it off.

At that, Emerald started singing and they had to turn off the sound for a moment. Garnet sighed and crossed her arms.

"When I said I wanted to join the team, I didn't mean Tech support, you know," she told him. He looked at her, a blank expression. "Normally Tails would be here, but we need fliers out there. We're fighting something in the air. Rouge is even helping."

"Rouge! Oh, come on!" She slumped into the seat. "I don't fly, so I get stuck on Computer Duty? Even the bat goes out in the field." Garnet's face was heating up.

"Sonia, do you have wings?!" Opal shouted.

"No," she started to squeak.

"Then you are most helpful here, the team, Mobius, needs you here. Find someone else who is better at this stuff than you are. Then you can go out in the field," he growled, then slammed the door on his way out.

Garnet brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them. Opal was scary sometimes.

*line*

Manic slid over watery snow. His clothes were at least damp, at most soaking. It varied. His sneakers landed on solid asphalt and he shot off into gray mist.

Alarms shot off in his head. He needed some water. A clanking noise was heard faintly, then a girl was thrown at him, knocking the breath out of him. The girl recovered first, and sat up. Manic could tell because her weight on him disappeared, and he could worry about the problem at hand. Water. On nom nom nom nom.

"Shadow, I found another one, and I also found Manic," Rouge said,chuckling and patting his shoulder. "How? I sort of landed on him. Knuckles, we're fine."

Manic breathed deeply and started laughing. It was Rouge! He thought he would have to protect this girl, but it was really the other way around! When he opened his eyes, she was standing over him, offering him a hand.

"I've been instructed to get you up on that thing," she explained. "Others will join you up there."

The diamond bar picked up Manic bridal style and took off in the whipping wind currents. Her leathery wings powerfully guided them through the fog,. They landed on it and Rouge patted his head, before saying "Be careful" and jumping off again. Manic bent down and inspected the ground for booby traps. He didn't see any obvious ones.

*line*

Unfortunately, Dr. Eggman was on that ship, and Sonic went nuts.

"Bro, get out of of there now," he was warning.

" One problem, I got no way off this thing, and I'm already fighting robots, so he knows I'm here."

"That's two problems," Sonia argued, and then "we are coming with reinforcements."

"Who? Everybody else has another position."

"Me," she replied, her brother could hear the determination in her voice. He scratched his arm while kicking another badnik.

"No, you're not," Shadow growled. Manic smashed another with his fists.

"Guys, I could really use some help up here!" Manic yelled, picking up a price of fallen robot and smacking others across the room with it.

"Trust me Opal and Emerald, I'M ON MY WAY!" A sigh of relief escaped Manic's mouth and he started to have a little hope that he wouldn't get captured on this endeavour.

He cleared the way to the electronic room, through some miracle, with which he dodged a laser to knock it open. The green hedgehog rushed in. Eggman, a very large and tall man, turned.

"What are you doing here?" He wondered. Man, his voice was so annoying.

"Get out of the way!" Manic yelled and threw a robot at him. The thing broke on contact. The plump doctor crumpled to the floor. He ran over to the computer panel.

"Uh, I.T. need a little help here! How do I disable it?" He asked into his communicator.

There's probably a self destruct button somewhere..." Sonic started, breathing heavily.

"Only if you want debris flying everywhere, causing even more damage. I need to get in and I can turn off the machines from here" a new voice came on. It sounded incredibly familiar, but he just couldn't place it. "What I need you to do is tell me exactly what is on the screens right."

"Well one is static, and 5 others show images through a slide screen," Manic began, leaning against the keyboard.

"Those aren't images, they're live feeds. That means there are at least three more fortresses we haven't found. I have spots for Tails and Rouge to check out. What I need you to do next is go under the circuit board and pull out the firewall. Knowing Eggman, it will probably be labeled."

"Okay," his hand drew near to the box, but it was very hot. "What if I think I might burn myself?"

"Then rip it out real fast," the voice instructed. Manic gripped the box with a little fire symbol on it and tugged. "And whatever you do," continued the voice, "Do not cause unnecessary damage to the wires."

"On it," Manic loosened the little caps holding the wires inside the ports. Before he burned himself, he tugged the small box out and set it on the floor.

"Now what?"

"Now I take over," the voice said. Manic tried to place it. It was on the tip of his tongue.

"Why did you need me to remove that anyway?"

"It would have set off an alarm if I even tried. I don't know how to hack." As she spoke, he watched all the screens turn to static.

"What's going on?"

"I'm trying to block Eggman's control from reaching the other structures. Your end will go fuzzy, mine will not. I'll land them and power them off, unless Shadow gives me the order to blow them up." The voice was talking faster, getting excited. "Because I understand he's the leader. Ohmygoshthisissocool."

"Are you done?" Shadow asked, annoyed.

"Yes. All landing now."

The floor beneath Manic shuddered, and he got that queasy feeling one gets in an elevator.

"Dark Gems, get out of all the the structures _now.," _ Shadow instructed through the communicators.

"Don't trust me?" The voice asked sarcastically. "Darn."

"I want you to blow up all of them, but wait until my team withdrawals."

"Alright. Alright."

"Ruby, how's damage control?"

"Doing Great, Opal."

Manic turned and ran through the hole, only to be grabbed by the collar by none other by the Doctor Eggman. He sheered and hung Manic on a coat rack, which extended metal bars to keep him in place.

"What did you do?" The doctor questioned. "No matter."

*line*

Shadow walked into base and put a hand on the girl's shoulder. She looked up. Then she started typing furiously.

"We have a problem. Manic's been captured. Where's Sonia?" The magenta hedgehog in question walked through the door at that exact moment. She was holding her watch and glaring.

"It broke," she growled clenching her fists and smacking the dash. Shadow removed his and strapped it to her wrist. "Manic needs you, so you can borrow mine. I'll stay here with Control."

"Oooh, that could be my code name," the girl clapped her hands together as Sonia sped out. "Control."

"If you want," Shadow said, shaking out his leather jacket.

**Who is this new tech savvy girl?**

**Please Review!**

**Have a great Day!**


	18. Search and Rescue

**CHAPTER 18: Search and Rescue**

**Hello! Thanks for reading? Baby Girl or boy? 1 vote for girl.**

Opal counted the number of people. Control, Garnet, Diamond, Quartz and Rouge had just entered the room. He pressed the speak button on his watch.

"Ruby," he said. The red echidna replied with a grunt followed by "Roger."

Control bit her lip. The girl had tried to hack into the system and had failed terribly.

"Who's that?" Diamond asked him, jutting a thumb at Control. Only Opal knew who she really was. He was the only one smart enough to figure it out. She was just wearing a hood.

"That's Control. I've told you before," Opal frowned. "Are you too much a faker to remember five minutes ago."

"I meant her real name."

"It doesn't matter," Opal replied." And its not my secret to tell."

"Yes it does,"Diamond muttered. He crossed his arms and stalked over to the other side of the room. All of them were now in a circle save their leader. Opal rested his hand on the chair Control was sitting on.

"Any luck?" He asked her, glaring at the screens.

"No, I haven't managed yet. I'm less experienced than Eggman." Control sighed and leaned back.

"I noticed, but you need try, if we don't know where Eggman is, we can't rescue Manic."

She nodded and dove into her work again. "Okay," Opal stared at the screens, waiting for something to pop up, and he decided that if he put a hand on her back to reassure her, she would work faster.

*Line*

Diamond smiled mischeviously and rubbed his hands together. Now he really needed to know who this "Control" person was. Opal was getting all cushy for this person. He laughed manically, then pointed it out to every one else in the circle.

He watched and plotted for a few seconds, but then he remembered his brother was in the custody of a psycho. The smile turned upside down, Opal and Control forgotten. Until Control shouted "Got him!"

"Yes, you're brilliant! Everyone! Move out!" Diamond yelled, jumping up and moving to the door. Quartz moved to follow, but glanced at Control. He probably should've helped her.

Diamond sprinted out, closely followed by everyone else. Their shoes pounded down the hallway. He whipped open the door and ran out into the snow covered street.

"Control," Rouge flew behind Diamond as she spoke. "We are going to need directions."

"On it," Control replied, "although I think it might be moving."

They raced down the street. Diamond was in the lead, Garnet close behind, and Quartz took up the rear. They couldn't get there fast enough.

"Oh, I'm such a ninny, make a left and then a right," Control huffed. The team followed suit. They skidded to a halt in front of a building. Its looming gray walls reached toward the overcast sky. Quartz felt an anxiety well within him. Just the door was there times his height, and a little less wide.

"We gotta knock it down," Diamond cracked his knuckles and began to curl into a spin dash. The massive door crushed robots beneath it as it fell to the floor.

"Attack!" yelled Quartz.

*Line*

Emerald sighed and sat down in the cell. He heard the crash, and he knew his teammates were coming to rescue him.

As soon as Eggman had grabbed him, Emerald had smashed the communicater against the wall. It had broken, but now his wrist hurt terribly. At least Eggman couldn't get any information from it.

The door flew against the wall with a large crash, and three members of the Dark Gems came in hot. Quartz was carrying a machine of some sort. He shot it at the bars, and the lasers disappeared.

"Hurry," Quartz urged, and they grabbed each other's wrists as Quartz flew him out of the room. He passed over completely destroyed robots, like those things were as dead as a doornail.

"I can walk you know," Emerald told him, and Quartz nodded, but continued his path with no sign of letting up.

"You wouldn't be fast enough," Quartz explained. The surroundings continued to blur around them.

They were just about to clear the door when it exploded.

*Line*

They were thrown into the snow, and Manic's ears were ringing. His face was deep in snow, his back hurt, and, well, he was cold. The hedgehog rolled over and saw Tails lying there, legs sizzling, and he was quietly saying "ow". His pant legs had been burned to the point that some of it was completely gone. Manic got up and rolled the fox over. He exhaled and said " much better, thanks." His Tails were remarkably fine, maybe because they had been spinning.

"Where's Sonic?" Manic asked. "And Sonia?"

"They should be finding us, right about...now." Tails exhaled a plums of steam into the cold air around them.

"Manic!" Sonia screamed. She rolled down the hill with such a look of relief on her face. Sonic came over the hill and slid down.

"Hey guys," Manic grinned. "That was not my fault." His siblings fell on him. Sonia might have been crying, but Manic was more concerned about their injuries. "Tails."

Attention was drawn to the little fox. He had a smile on his face.

"Tails, bud, you were so brave. I'm so proud of you little bro! Sonic fist-bumped Tails and delicately picked him up.

"Back to HQ."

Sonia nodded, helping Manic to his feet.

"You sure you guys okay?" Sonic asked with concern.

"Yeah. It's just a flesh wound."

**Thanks for Reading! Please Review!**


	19. The New Year

**Chapter 19: The New Year**

When they walked in Monday after a three day weekend, Anne was pumped, and the rest of the group was...tired.

"I don't know how you're so awake right now," Manic complained while struggling to keep up. Anne noticed this and slowed down a squick.

"I didn't get burned, then forced to deal with it till break," she pointed out. She shoved her hands in her pockets as they crunched through the snow. "And snow is everywhere." The smile on her face was unmistakable.

Manic grinned, chuckling slightly. He breathed in and out deeply. It was really nice to be outside. The air was crisp and fresh, and the rising sun splayed beautiful colors in the dawning sky. Scarlet danced with gold and heliotrope. It was breathtaking.

He had told Anne what had happened, (she replied with "Teenage boys are such idiots,") and it didn't make her faint, so it didn't surprise her as much as he thought it would. The group entered the doors and they all steered to the library automatically. The group collapsed into chairs, Rouge settling into the crook of Knuckles' arm, and all yawned. Anne looked away, trying not to, but started herself anyway.

So what onlookers saw was a group of teenagers lounging all over the furniture in the corner of the library. Manic sprawled himself on the floor, his face buried in his jacket stretched over his arm. Anne sat next to him, her legs going one way like she was wearing a skirt, with one hand on the floor for support. Manic quite liked the way she looked like that.

His eyes closed for split second, and the next Anne was shaking him awake to get to first period.

He would be late!

Up in the sopranos/ bass section (Mr. Vector decided he looked out backwards), Manic leaned on Anne. She stiffened, but relaxed after a moment. He snoozed during Warm Up, and they had free time after, so he fell asleep leaning on his friend again. She just wrote down stuff in her book. When the Bell rang for 2nd period, she again woke him up and walked him to class even..

Sometimes, he felt really lucky. Like that one time he had barely escaped with his lunch. Now THAT was a story, but for another time.

*Line*

I skipped toward my least favorite class, but I was happy. Manic had fallen asleep, and it took all I had to keep from laughing. Laughing always puts me in a good mood.

The stairs were crowded going into my history classroom, and if I hadn't taken the detour, there probably wouldn't be this many people here.

A smile partied on my face and I probably looked like the crazy freshman everybody thought was high. I walked into the classroom with a big "Hello," that startled Mrs. Johnson. The teacher looked up, and said, "Good Morning, Bethany."

I sat at my desk and looked at the board, grabbing my notebook from my bag. It was chockful of notes and doodles, well not full yet. The warm up was simple, and pretty much the rest of my classes were just review. I was bored by the end of the day, Manic and I both slept in the bus seat.

Then I played video games at home, so it was alright anyway.

"How was school?" My father asked me when he got home.

"Dead boring. It will be new stuff next week. It's high school. Changes every two minutes." My character died on the last part and I set down the remote and cracked my knuckles.

"When's dinner?" He inquired. I gulped.

"It's my turn?" My voice went higher with each word. My dad started laughing hysterically, filling the whole house with it. I slapped my forehead.

Gosh, Darn it.

*Line*

Rouge dropped her bags on the floor of their hallway. Knuckles reached up toward the sky and a pop resonated in the empty corridor. The bat went straight for the kitchen, grabbing a granola bar from the cupboard. She opened the fridge next, grabbing milk and taking a swig from the nearly empty gallon.

"What do you feel like for dinner?" Knuckles asked her. She hummed and smiled at him. She set the milk gallon down.

"You are so sweet," she replied, trailing a finger down his face. "But we have an appointment today, remember?"

"That doesn't mean we can't have dinner, does it?" He retorted, wrapping an arm around her waist. The ruby echidna pecked her head, and Rouge stood up on her tippy toes so they could kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Yes it does," she teased when they broke away. "At least till we get back." The bat turned out of the kitchen and into the hallway. She came back wearing warmer clothes and a purse rather than a back pack. "We are going to be late, Knuckie!" She shouted as she grabbed her scarf.

This was a very important appointment, they were going to find out the gender of their baby. They walked to the vehicle holding hands. While Knuckles searched his pockets for the keys, Rouge giggled. He pulled them out with a triumphant grin.

"Let's go," Knuckles smiled proudly. "Should we start thinking of names?"

"Yes, but I don't think I want to name the baby before they're actually here," Rouge climbed into the passenger seat and put on her seat belt. When knuckles started the car, she felt a... feeling. She'd felt the baby move before, sure, but this was new. She gasped as she felt a slight punch.

"Knuckles!" She tapped her boyfriend's arm, "give me your hand!" He obliged and she placed her massive mitt onto her belly. When it happened again, his eyes went wide, and she smiled and clapped her hands together.

"Hello, little one," he whispered, and Rouge froze. She wasn't expecting that at all, from him anyway. He was showing promise already.

*Line*

Any was walking home with Cream. The bunny was happy, skipping and hugging her books to her chest. She was now in 8th grade since the start of the new semester, she even had half her classes with Tails so he could continue to tutor her. She had homework, but work was not important at the moment.

The friends had linked arms and started talking when Amy had been waiting for her at the bus stop. They were heading to Creams house, and Amy was coming because she had been invited to dinner. A purse was slung over her shoulder, and Cream thought it went well with her outfit.

"I like your bag," the bunny said. Amy gave her a wide grin. "Thanks."

When they arrived, Cheese was waiting at the window for Cream. It screwed up its face in a very happy expression as it spun around.

"Cheese!" Cream giigled and opened the door, allowing herself to get "tackled" by her chao. She hugged it close and then let it float beside her as she went to put her stuff down.

"Vanilla, you need any help?" Any called into the kitchen.

"That would be lovely dear," her mother replied. Then Cream heard a voice she hadn't heard in a while, a gravelly but excited feel to it. Her bookbag thudded to the ground and she sprinted to the kitchen.

"Pops!" She squealed.

*Line*

Amy watched as her best friend was scooped up and kissed on the forehead by her grandfather. His bristly mustache quivered when his nose twitched.

"Happy New Year, nugget!" He spun Cream around. "Sorry it took me so long!"

"It's still January, Dad," Vanilla pointed out as she drained rice in the sink. The grandpa was setting Cream down on the ground when a dish feel to the floor.

The hedgehog wiped her eyes and knelt to pick up the shattered plate. She scooped the pieces into her hand carefully. Cream and her grandfather immediately started to help, which just made Amy sob a little more.

"Amy? What's wrong?"her friend asked.

"It's nothing, just startled me."

It was not nothing, she just couldn't figure out how to put it into words without her sounding jealous. She was so glad Cream had a family, but she kinda wished she had a big family that loved her, too. Her brother was always gone, and that was fine, considering the circumstances. Amy just had been so lonely by herself at the house without even Rouge there now. Her parents house used to be filled with screams of little children while they played.

So, no, it was not nothing.

*Line*

"Rouge Sonar," the nurse called, and the couple stood up, ignoring glances from surrounding people. Knuckles was dragged through the halls of countless rooms before bring led into a dark room with a chair next to a device with a wand and a table.

Some sort of torture device perhaps?

"You two can wait here for the doctor. She'll be with you in a moment," the nurse explained. Rouge and Knuckles sat side by side in chairs near the wall as she left, closing the door halfway behind her. They tapped their thumbs together, and Knuckles bumped his knees up and down. Rouge put a hand on his knee, and quieted his hands.

"You are making _me_ nervous," she told him.

A doctor dressed in pink scrubs came into the room and shut the door behind him. He had a fluffy Tail and sneakers with a stethoscope around his neck.

"Hello, my name is Dr. Horn, and I will be assisting you today," he smiled warmly. He patted the chair. "Ms. Sonar if you please."

Rouge gulped audibly beside him, before rising to her feet and hoisting herself onto the table. The doctor sat in the chair.

"Dad, you can pull up a chair if you like," the doctor told Knuckles. The chair legs squeaked against the floor add he joined his girlfriend.

Dr. Horn pulled out a tube and asked Rouge to lift up her shirt. The echidna glared. He didn't like this guy already. Rouge obliged and grabbed her boyfriend's hand. A shiver ran through her when the doctor squeezed the gel out. Must be cold. He placed the wand on her abdomen and an image appeared on the screen. Knuckles stared in awe at the tiny lump that Dr. Horn pointed out to be their baby.

"Vitals look great, and everything is developing normally. Would you like to see if you're having a boy or a girl?" Dr. Horn asked them. Rouge clutched his hand as both nodded, smiles on their faces. The doctor maneuvered the wand a little and pressed a button to freeze it. He then pointed on the screen. With the wand in his other hand, his finger drew both their attention.

"Looks like... A girl! Congratulations!" Dr. Horn then asked if they would like a picture. Rouge declined and he started to wipe the gel off.

They walked out hand in hand, and Rouge was grinning madly. Knuckles, elated, wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings, and nearly stubbed his toe on the way out.

He was going to be a father, and to a daughter no less. This was great. She would be so adorable. It made Knuckles wonder who she would resemble more.

*Line*

Shadow strapped his motorcycle helmet on and leaned down to grab the handle bars securely. His bag had a new book in it, and the library closed five minutes ago. As he drove home, he started thinking about what he wanted to do with his spring break. Probably just work the whole week, but it helped put food on the table, eh?

**There you go! See you in the anniversary chapter! Thanks so much for reading. Please review! Well Wishes!**


	20. Happy V-Day

**Chapter 20: Valentines Day**

**Anniversary Chapter! Ha Ha! A year ago, I started this fic, and I'm still really excited about it.**

Amy swung her hips to the music as she licked frosting off her finger. A cake lay in front of her, half frosted with white.

"Make it like your birthday everyday!" She sang. The thick layer looked quite good, if Amy did say so herself. She had yet to do the top, frosting and smoothing. She scooped more of the white frosting onto the circular cake, gently squashing it to the top.

This cake was a Valentine's Day cake for her friends, although Sonic kept coming to mind. Amy was happy, unlike her breakdown two weeks before. Her heart fluttered in her chest, getting excited about how much they would love her cake.

*Line*

Sonic twisted the rose in his hand. It looked lonely and sad. Valentine's is not a day for sadness, no sir. The speedster turned around and walked back to the floral stand.

"Hello again," the owner said. She smiled warmly. Sonic grinned.

"Do you think I could get a few more roses? With a ribbon around the stems?" He chuckled. Romantic gestured were not his strong suit, but if he planned to ask her out, Sonic planned to do so with style.

Sonic Style?

*Line*

The next morning was Saturday, and the rose bouquet had sat in water overnight. When Sonic got up, he was nervous for Amy's Valentine's Day party. They'd be at a park near her house. It was more of a picnic than a party, but he was still looking forward to it.

Once double checking all the chilidogs were secure in their basket, Sonic folded over the cloth. They smelled delicious. All hot and steamy and fresh.

"Thanks, mom, bye!" Sonic called as he started heading for the door.

"Forgetting something?" She asked, and when Sonjc looked back, she was holding his sweater on her fingers, holding the newly tied roses in the other hand.

"Oh yeah, thanks!" Sonic grinned and hugged his mother. "Love you mom!"

"You three have fun!"

*Lime*

Rouge woke up to the smell of bacon. It played with the scent of eggs, and Rouge sat up, throwing off the covers and got to her feet. The bat quietly walked down the hallway, pushing around the corner.

In the kitchen stood a tall and handsome echidna, leaning over sizzling bacon and popping eggs. Cheese was laid out on the counter next to him, some spilling out. He reached up into the cabinet to retrieve a glass. The fridge opened, and milk poured into the cup until it was a little over half full.

Rouge blinked away tears. It was touching. She put a hand over her mouth to keep any noise from escaping as she crept back to bed. Once there, the bat proceeded to bury herself under the covers and wait. For what, she wasn't completely certain. Maybe until she felt normal again.

Knuckles came in carrying a tray of food. He looked around, wondering where his girlfriend might be. He spotted a lump underneath the covers. Knuckles began to estimate where her ticklish spots would be as he set the food down. He gave up, flopped onto the bed, and started tickling her randomly.

Rouge began to giggle uncontrollably until she popped her head out for air.

"Stop!" She gasped. She sat up to catch her breath. Rouge sighed heavily and said airly "Good Morning to you too."

"Happy Valentine's Day, love." He smiled broadly. He grabbed the tray and offered it to her. Rouge laughed. She accepted the tray and patted the bed next to her.

Ooooo, bacon.

"Knuckles, Valentines Day isn't until tomorrow!"

"Whoops."

*Line*

My alarm blared in my ear. I groaned and rolled over to turn it off. A sigh echoed in the empty room. I decided it was too early to wake up on a Saturday, so I closed my eyes and dozed off. That is, until _somebody_ called me a minute later.

"Anne, are you awake?" The voice said. I groaned in response. "Good, where are you? Amy did invite you to her picnic yes?'

" Aye, of course she did," I replied in a low voice.

"It's starting, you gotta be here. Sonic is gonna ask out..."

"Be right there!" I exclaimed, suddenly finding the will to get out of bed. I pulled the comforters up, and cold air rushed in. Shocked, I threw the covers back.

"Okay see you there," Manic hung up our call.

I can't believe I forgot.

*Line*

Cream was there, and Tails was going to back up hisbuddy Sonic anyway, so why not look presentable?

Sou when they got there, Tails immediately spotted the bunny, sitting on a blanket in the shade. A promising spring breeze pushed her hair away from her face. She leaned her head back and smiled, eyes closed. Her choa lay in her lap, gently snoozing on the bright yellow flowers fabric. The dress sent to her knees with a large skirt, so that when she sat it circled around her.

"Hey, buddy, are you coming or what?" Sonic asked, waving a hand in front of his face. Tails blinked and turned toward his friend.

"Yeah."

The blue hedgehog fidgeted nervously with the bouquet of roses he held. He glanced at his friend and patted on the shoulder. Sonic looked back, fear etched in his eyes. Take grabbed his shoulders and turned Sonic to face him.

"Repeat after me," the fox's piercing blue eyes made holes through Sonic's retinas. At least, that's what it felt like.

"I am Sonic the hedgehog,I've crushed foes for over a decade!"

"I am Sonic the hedgehog..."

Tails slapped Sonic across the face. It didn't hurt, but it certainly surprised the speedster.

"Again, with conviction!"

"I am Sonic the hedgehog! I've crushed foes for over a decade!" Sonic cried.

"I can ask out a girl!"

"I can ask out a girl" he copied.

Tails shoved Sonic toward the host. He swaggered over to her with renewed confidence. Amy was relaxing on a blanket under the sun, her pink dress spread out. Sonic smiled as he asked if he could sit down with her. She nodded with a large grin.

"Amy, Happy Valentines Day," he offered her the roses. Her eyes popped, cheeks flushing while she accepted them. Despite her puzzling embarrassment, she moved so he could sit next to her.

"Happy Valentines Day to you as well, Sonic," she replied. Tails saw Sonic reach up behind his head. A nervous habit.

"So, Ames, I was wondering if you wanted to hangoutt sometime, just the two of us?" He began. "You know, like maybe I could take you out for ice cream or something?"

"Just the two of us?" He nodded. "Like a date?" Another nod, but hesitantly this time.

"Yes, I would like that Sonic Mach," she smiled and kissed him on the cheek as she got up. He jumped, startled.

"Too soon?"

"A little."

*Line*

Shade chortled next to her on the park bench. The doe had just told a joke. She didn't even think it was all that funny.

"Thank You," Citrus said wrapping his jacket tighter around her.

"Oh, no problem, I probably won't need it for quite a while." He grinned, then frowned. "Are you still cold?"

"That's not what I meant. I meant thank you for flying all the way from Spagonia to Empire City. Just to see me," she smiled and tightened her grip around her cocoa. "That's so sweet."

He nodded. "I know." She laughed

"Citrus?"

"Hmmm?"

"I... missed you."

"Same goes for me you big oaf."

His shoulders sagged, as if disappointed. she wondered why, he liked to be around her.

"Well, I do have a whole week off, given finals last week. I could stay for a few more days. If you'd like, I could even help you with your studies," he offered.

"That's right, you are like three years ahead huh? Going to college."

"A year, actually," he corrected, "but I attend school at the University."

Citrus nodded with understanding. They sat for a while, just enjoying one another's company, before Citrus decided it was time to go inside.

"Happy Valentines Day Citrus."

Happy Valentines Day, to you, Shade."

*Line*

Shadow sat up, sweat beaded down his forhead. He wiped it off in annoyance. The room was dark and quiet, alone except himself. He brought his knees closer to himself. The nightmares were bad, but not as bad as they used to be. There was a cold glass of water on the night stand from last night, so Shadow picked it up and dumped it on his head to wake himself up.

It was just a dream.

It was just a nightmare.

It was just imaginary.

Shadow picked himself up from his bed and walked into the bathroom to take a shower.

It was just a dream.

It was imaginary.

**Hopw you enjoyed!**

**Happy Anniversary Guys! BTW, it wasn't in Valentines Day because I don't work Sunday, kay?**

**Have a great week.**


	21. Classes

**Chapter 21: Classes**

She told me to give her twenty push ups. Nobody else had too, even if messing up the pyramid was a team effort. I complied and started to get down on the ground. Courtney snickered.

"Isabelle," Courtney called to the petite girl. "Sit on her, will you?"

The girl nodded curtly, frightened. Her added Wight was not welcome on my arms. The muscles throbbed in protest. On around twelve, the orange monkey told me to get up. I did as I was told.

"Isabella, get on her back. Anne, I want you to run a lap piggy backing Isabelle, m'kay?" I nodded and bent down.

Just business as usual.

"Everyone pair up and run a lap. Roxy, you're with me!" Everybody followed orders.

"So how's it going?" I asked Isabelle as we rounded a curve. She replied and we carried out a conversation. Her curls bounced around her face. Our exercise clothes stank. But, then again, so did we after a long week. Sweat happens.

"Anne, pick up the pace!" shouted Courtney. "And another lap!"

I grinned and tightened my grip on Isabelle's legs. She squeezed my neck harder. She knew what was coming. I moved faster and took a deep breathe.

It happened.

We shot off, streaks in our wake. My sneakers sped over the asphalt track. Isabelle laughed. Courtney didn't even have enough time to finish yelling at me before I was done. I bent and Isabelle got off, slightly dizzy.

"What the hell?" She cried, hand in her hips, face reddening with anger. Her tail clicked angrily from side to side. "Was that?" She finished.

"That was me, picking up the pace," I answered, raising my hands go cross at the nape of my neck. Even though it was a gorgeous spring day, it was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. I smiled slyly. "Just like you asked."

In response to my sentence, she stormed over to me and raised her hand. It fell heavily on my cheek, leaving a stinging red mark in its place. I let my mouth hang open in shock. What did Courtney think will come of this? If didn't help my already uneven breathing. My knees bent into a kneel, and that when Courtney decided that she was doing good.

The other girls just stood there. Nice job. Thumbs up and teamwork, guys.

Courtney had her foot coming at me, but I stuck my hand out and caught it.

"What was-"

Wham!

I went spiraling into the dirt, reeling from the punch. My opposite cheek throbbed with my heartbeat. Refusing to fight back, I propped myself up on my hands and knees.

"What are you waiting for?" Courtney prodded. "Tell me what that was." I could hear the other girls murmuring.

"I already told you," I replied with a cough. It was this that sent her over the edge. Salty or not, I was tired of this. She hides and jumped on top of me. Suppose this was a fight. I threw her off and and say up, wiping my mouth.

"You are nearly anyways late, and sometimes you don't even show up to practice. What can't you come regularly, huh?" Courtney screamed.

"It would be easier if I knew there _was _practice in the first place. I am not late, you always start before you say you would," I paused, realizing that didn't sound right, but I continued as I stormed over to the benches to gather my stuff. " I quit, Courtney, not that I felt like I ever joined in the first place. But I quit, officially. If you want, I'll turn in my uniform Monday. I am not coming back."

"You can't just up and quit cheerleading!" Courtney protested.

"I can, and I just did," I slung my athletics bag over my shoulder and shouldered my regular backpack.

"Get back here!"

"Why?"

"Because I ain't done with you yet!"

I rolled my eyes and started to walk in the direction of home. Sure, I like being involved with cheerleading, but that was enough.

I broke into a run, not a fully concentrating on what I was doing. My breathing continued to worsen. Happened every time the speed did. That's when it occurred to me I should probably slow down. Instead, I shut my eyes. Not a very good choice.

My stupid decision came to an end, however, was brought to a halt when I slammed into someone. As we crashed to the pavement, they made an audible "oomph".

"Bethany, what are you doing?" Shadow grumbled from beneath me. I hid my face from him, before tears started to pour from my eyes.

"I'm sorry," I sobbed. "I wasn't looking where I was going." I wiped my eyes, but it didn't help any. "I was just leaving practice.

"It doesn't seem like it's over..."

"I _quit." _

"Oh."

I realized I was still on top of Shadow, so I promptly got off and pulled my knees up to my chest. My arms went up and my face went down. As soon as it did, I started bawling uncontrollably.

"Woah, said Shadow, casting his shadow in front of me. "What did I say?"

"It's... not... you... I just..."

"Spit it out, Nurminy," he continued calmly. Contrary to his words, his tone was eerie.

"I couldn't... not with... everything else that's... going on..."

He patted my shoulder awkwardly.

"Look at me," he commanded. I didn't move

"Lift you head up!" Still nothing.

"Nurminy, look at me!" He jerked my head up. His eyebrows slightly raised at my face. "Stand up, let's get your face cleaned up."

He extended a hand toward me with a frown. I accepted it and stood, still breathing hard and crying.

"ARE YOU RUNNING NOW! YEAH, LET YOUR BOYFRIEND SAVE YOU!" Courtney shouted.

Shadow stuck his arm out behind us and flipped her the finger.

"Lean on me, wheezy," he glared. I shook my head. "You're going to pass out again."

"Geez, Bethany," he grumbled. He scooped me up and continued walking to the bathroom. "You were going too slow, too."

I didn't even smile.

When we got to the mirrors, I found I was bleeding. My cheek still stung, but I used a towel to dab blood from my nose. Splashing my face with cold water didn't help. I walked out from the bathroom holding a tissue to my nose. Shadow was holding my bags, standing stoically and frowning.

"I'm taking you home, Bethany. Come on." I wiped my nose one last time before trying to take my bags from Shadow. He shook his head while turning to head to the parking lot.

"I can get home by myself."

He chuckled darkly. "I doubt that."

*Line*

"And tell me the reason you want to switch to online classes again, Ms. Sonar?" Ms. White asked her, pulling up her glasses.

"I don't have any parents, ma'am. I have to work to be able to live somewhere. Online school would be easier to manage, and I still want to graduate," Rouge crossed her legs and rubbed her palms along her palm legs.

"Uh, may I use the restroom?"

"We are almost done, dear," Ms. White smiled. "That's the third time you've asked."

"Because I really have to pee."

"We'll just be another minute," the counselor assured her. Rouge nodded, forcing a smile. Ms. White proceeded to double check the classes Rouge wanted to stay in. Then triple checked that Rouge had all of her teachers e-mails. Finally, she asked if Rouge might need anything else.

"I'm not sure you have enough credits with those..."

"Go ahead, I'll wait."

The old lady peered at the screen and her lips started forming words soundlessly.

"I'm gonna go pee, now. Promise I'll come right back."

"Two more minutes, dear."

"Lady," Rouge's eyebrows twitched. "I have a baby sitting on my bladder, lemme pee, woman!"

The counselor nodded, shocked. Rouge ran from the room to the nearest washroom, dashing into the first stall with little concern.

"Thank you, janitors," she muttered. This was one of the cleanest bathrooms on campus.

When she walked back into Ms. White's office, the counselor had her wrinkled hands folded in her old lady was waiting patiently for her explanation.

"I'm pregnant," Rouge sighed as she sat down. She unzipped Knuckles' jacket and took it off. The counselor's eyes widened with surprise. Rouge, suddenly feeling self-concious, pulled the sweater back onto her arms and intertwined her fingers over her baby bump.

"How long have you been-"

"September."

"Is that the real reason?"

"Partly. I really do have no parents. I live with my boyfriend. I do need to transfer, though. Are we almost done?" Rouge adjusted her sitting position and sighed again.

"Why didn't you come in sooner, dear?" Ms. white looked at the paper's request date, which answered her question for her. "Oh. I finished while you were in the restroom dear."

Rouge smiled and zipped up her jacket. She stood up to swing her back pack on.

"You start on Monday, and .. Congratulations."

Rouge thanked her and left the office.

*Line*

Shadow switched off the motorcycle, making her head jerk up. This was not her neighborhood, let alone her house.

"What's the deal?" she asked, her headache now forgotten. She unclipped her helmet and pulled it off, letting all her quills flow down across her back.

"Training."

"Oh, really, I thought you were taking me home," she replied.

"I will, but you need to stand up for yourself. I'm gonna teach you how." He led her toward a band of trees.

"Courteous of you to wait until after my nose stopped bleeding," she commented. He pushed through a thicket and stood in the middle of the clearing/. She followed, pulling her hair back into a ponytail.

'Here, stand adjacent to me. Good, now fight me," Shadow instructed.

"What?"

"You heard me. Fight me," he repeated.

"No, you'll kill me," she crossed her arms. He smirked.

"Then try to tackle me," he chuckled.

"You won't break my back?"

"Glad you trust me so much."

She sighed and bent down. Shadow took note of her mistake for later. He dodged her charge with ease, she fumbled and fell in the dirt.

"Again."

She got up, before charging again. He side-stepped again, but this time the opposite way. She had shoved toward the previous side into the dusty dirt.

Clever girl.

*Line*

"This is nice," Amy smiled, licking her ice cream cone.

"Yeah, pretty nice," Sonic agreed.

The pair were walking down the sidewalk. Amy's hand was on his arm, her double chocolate ice cream in the other. Sonic had vanilla.

"You're so lucky," Amy said, smiling at him.

"Why do you say that?"

"You're just lucky," she replied, "and your mom is so lovely."

"Oh, I guess. What about your parents, Amy? What are they like?"

"They died when I was three."

"Oh," Sonic looked down in embarrassment and frowned, "sorry for bringing it up.."

"It's okay, I don't really remember them. I have an older brother though, you've met him. He was at the pool a few months ago. Daniel Rose."

"That's cool."

"It gets really lonely in our house, y'know? Danny works and goes to college," Amy tried to laugh. Sonic frowned again.

"Y'know, Amy, it's super boring at my house, I could totally use something new." Sonic pretended to think. "I got it! What if I come over tomorrow and we can-"

"Paint!"

"-yeah, paint! It'll be fun!"

Amy smiled broadly and hugged his arm.

"HEY!" Somebody shouted near them. "That's cheating!"

"Is not!" shouted another mockingly.

"Amy let go of his art and ran toward it. Sonic followed.

"Again! Rematch!"

"I won fair and square."

Now that they were closer, Sonic could distinguish a masculine and feminine voice fighting. The yelling was coming from beyond the trees, so Amy and Sonic pushed through and stopped abruptly, gawking.

"Nurminy, I won, you can go home, now," Shadow chuckled. Anne tapped her foot.

"Rematch!"

"Woah! Hold Up!" cried Amy. The girl was staring at Anne's face. Her cheeks were red and one side was swollen. Traces of blood were near her nose and mouth, and a small cut was bleeding on her forearm.

"Holy Cow, Shadow, what were you doing?"

"Shut up, faker. None of that's from me." Shadow folded his arms against his chest and leaned back on one of the many trees.

"I fell," Anne said slowly. Amy looked skeptical and put her hand on her hip.

"Oh, really? Sonic, I wasn't aware people could only fall on one side of their face, but get all of their nose?"

"It's physically impossible to land on both," Sonic provided. Amy grinned and looked at Anne.

She sighed.

Shadow walked up behind her, took her by the shoulders, and started to lead her away.

"Well, it was so pleasant talking to you, faker, but I'm going to take Bethany home now. Seeya, Rose."

"Bye, Shadow." Amy giggled, made a comment, and said, "Where were we?"

*Line*

"Who is it?"

"Control, I'm here-"

The door opened abruptly and behind it stood Shadow. He grinned slightly and beckoned her in.

"You're late."

"I realize that," she snapped as she walked in. She joined the group in the living room.

"Why are we here?"

"Do you need to ask that question? Obviously it's something with Egghead again," Sonic slumped in his seat. Manic was stretched over the back of the couch, so Sonia leaned over and poked exposed fur.

"Well, excuse me. I've only worked with you guys once," she folded her arms.

"Hey, I will not tolerate any fighting between team members," Shadow growled. "We are here for patrols.. Sonic, you're right, Eggman has a bunch of new robots, but he hasn't done anything with them.

"And how do you about them?" Sonia asked, suspicious. Shadow smirked and replied with "Control hacked the cameras at his base."

"He didn't put the firewall back in," she muttered, slightly blushing.

Of course he didn't,Sonic thought. He's an Egghead.

"So, Shadow has asked me to split you guys up into teams. Sonic and Tails, You're Alpha," Control looked at her notepad. The redness faded from her cheeks a bit."Sonia and Knuckles are Beta, Shadow and Manic are Delta." Shadow glared. "Problem?"

"I can't work with Knuckles," Sonia raised her hand.

"Why not?" Control asked, tapping her pen.

"Um..."

"I can't work with Manic, either, so why don't you just switch us?"

"You can't stand Knuckles," she argued.

"Faker's brother is worse."

"Shadow, I'm hurt," Manic put a hand over his chest and feigned pain.

The black hedgehog glared at him while Control switched things up in her notepad. One had to admit, she was more organized with this kind of stuff than they had anticipated. She went on to assign each team to a part of town, with streets as clear boundries.

"You'll be in contact with one another through these, instead of those weird bulky radios." She held up a cylinder that was sort of clear. She told them it was like a tiny version of the watches, only better. She handed one out to each person, putting one in her own ear, until only one was left. She pocketed it.

"For Shade, i had a feeling we would need it soon." she sighed and sat down on the ground. All the teams deployed, until only Delta was left.

Shadow, before leaving, gave Control a _hug_, out of free will, and told her he's be back soon. She nodded.

What was going on exactly?

**Thanks For Reading! Please Review! Have a good day!**


	22. Little Do You Know

**Chapter 20: Little do You Know**

**Thanks For Reading!**

"Bye, Knuckie!" called Rouge as he left. He turned, grinned, and waved. The echidna got into his truck and drove off to school. Rouge sighed and shut the door. Now, what was she going to do all day? The bat walked over to the couch and admired the sunrise, taking a deep breath.

She walked past the bathroom to go get her brush from the room, and she stumbled back a little.

"Wow, that stinks!" she shrieked in surprise. Rouge found what she was going to do. She was going to clean the house, because it was dirty and she couldn't think of anything better to do that day, besides maybe schoolwork.

She grabbed cleaning supplies and started in the bathroom, gently singing. Multiple times, she stopped to step outside for a breath of fresh air, because if chemicals make you dizzy, think about what it could do to a baby.

She had to remember now. It wasn't just her life now. It was their's.

*line*

Shadow grumbled about a certain problem on the Statistics test he was taking. Here he was, halfway through senior year, and the problem made no sense. The teacher's phone rang, and Shadow looked up, taking the chance to glare at the teacher. Eerily enough, the teacher then turned to him, telling whoever was on the phone thet he would be right there.

"Mr. Jackson needs you in room 243," said the teacher, then waved him away. "You may go."

Shadow stood up and walked out of the classroom. Once in the hallway, he wondered what Mr. Jackson, his sophmore geometry teacher, would want with him today. He kept wondering until he stood in front of the door to the classroom. Through the window he could see all the students gathered in one corner. Puzzled, Shadow opened the door.

"See, Mr. Jackson, I told you he was her boyfriend!" Courtney said from her desk. Shadow's eyebrow went up. He was nobody's boyfriend.

"You needed to see me, sir?" Shadow began, glancing once again at the gathering of students.

"Yes, Courtney told me you were Ms. Nurminy's boyfriend, so I called you down. She seems to need some assistance."

Once again confused, and angry about it, Shadow turned again toward the group of students. They parted, mostly, to reveal the girl curled up in the fetal position, shutting everyone else out. He parted the crowd the rest of the way and picked her up, letting her shins fall off his arm. He stood up and looked at Mr. Jackson.

"Permission to remove, sir?"

"Permission granted."

Shadow walked out of the room without another glance back. A sinking feeling was settling in his gut. The black hedgehog stalked over to the other side of the corridor, before setting her on the floor.

"Bethany, what happened?"

She didn't respond.

"Bethany!"

Shadow realized that wasn't helping. He sat next to her, wrapped his arms around her, as much as it pained him to do so, and let her sit there for a while. A teacher passed them in the hallway and looked weirdly at them, but when Shadow looked up, she left in a hurry.

"Bethany, say something."

"I'm sorry," she shook within his grasp.

"Not what I wanted to hear," he began, "but somewhere. You want to tell me what happened?"

"I had break down," she replied, voice wobbling.

"I can see that," Shadow retorted. "What happened to cause.."

"Courtney was..."

Shadow glared at her. "I thought you were stronger than that. Tell me the real reason."

"My mother isn't my mother."

"What?" Shadow deadpanned, now bemused once again.

"My mother, she isn't... she isn't my biological mother."

Now, Shadow got it, her life had been shattered, and Courtney's bullying wasn't helping. He patted her shoulder, trying to comfort her. He said a few words, after which she nodded.

"Can I go back to class, now?"

"Do you really want to?" she asked, smirking just a little.

"Not really, but you need to get back to class as well," he replied.

"I already get the concept he's trying to teach us."

"Then I guess I could stay here a little while longer, Statistics is so stupid."

She curled in on herself again, to which Shadow withdrew and sulked a little. He felt sorry for her, which was new, he had never felt pity for another creature.

"It feels good to talk to someone," she whispered. He frowned.

"How long have you known?"

"Since Thursday night."

Friday came flooding back into his mind, with her tears and the reason she couldn't deal with Courtney's tourment. The monkey had been escalating the stress, which wasn't good. No wonder she didn't want to go back to class.

"If you ever need someone to talk to, here's my number. I am probably not who you want to talk to, but you can have it anyway," he grumbled. She was his friend, and he was going to be there for her, like he would for Rouge, or Amy.

Like an older brother.

*Line*

"Where's Anne?" asked Manic as his friends sat down. "I thought she was here today."

"Yeah, and where's faker? He always eats lunch and glares at me," Sonic commented.

The group all ate in relative silence for a moment. Sonic sparked up a conversation with Amy and Sally, and Knuckles was texting Rouge whilst in a conversation with Sonia. Manic was eating his home lunch and wondering exactly what happened. Had she gotten sick? Did her parents take her home early for some other reason? A cold wind drifted through the cafeteria, and the vents shuddered. Manic did not enjoy sitting under the vents.

*Line*

Cream laughed, wiping the cheese off her shirt. Tails gave her his napkin, trying to contain a giggle, but it came out anyway. The pair were sitting in the cafeteria, eating lunch and basically just having a good time. There were nachos sitting in front of the bunny, and Tails was setting down his sandwich to get her more napkins, for she had bombed herself with the drippy and gooey cheese.

"Hurry Back!" she called after him, and then giggled to herself. She stared out the window, waiting for his return.

8th grade was absolutely wonderful. Her teachers were really nice, and Tails was in nearly all of her classes. All the other 8th graders were getting ready for high school. In fact, in just a few weeks, all of them would be taking a trip to the high school they would be attending. Her and Tails would check out Forest High, but since her mother worked at the school, Cream could probably give _them_ the majority of the tour.

Outside was gorgeous. Sun lit up the green grass, little dandelion weeds bloomed, and a breeze flowed through the blooming trees. Let's just say it was officially springtime.

"Here you go, Cream," Tails said when he returned, Cream thanked him and excused herself, telling him to watch over their lunches. She walked swiftly to the bathrooms, where they would be a sink. The first, scooped all she could, then wet a napkin and rubbed the cheese. This was probably a bad idea, because it was rubbing the cheese stain into her white shirt, but Cream figured it was better than nothing.

She started to walk back to the cafeteria, but she spotted three boys surrounding Tails, one of them a mean look on their face. Cream puffed out a breath of air angrily. She started to stomp up to them. She abruptly stopped.

"Where is your little girlfriend, now, hmmm? Can little freak take care of himself, or what?" one of them sneered. Cream saw Tails take a breath in, standing up to be even with their height. He was even a bit taller than they were.

"She's not my girlfriend, and I would appreciate it if you would cease calling me that-"

"OH, guys, he would 'appreciate' it, how quaint."

"Do you even know what that word means?" Tails asked, folding his arms. His tails flicked a tad in annoyance.

"Course I do, cause I'm swag like that."

Tails laughed aloud, covering his mouth a tad afterward.

"Well, I've had my laugh, you guys may go back to you table, now. If you would like to stay, I could offer you a biscuit."

"That's a pretty big IF, what IF we feel like pounding your face in for mouthing off to us?"

"Then I suggest you take it up with the counselors, or a therapist. You seem to have anger issues," Tails replied. The main boy had a vein bulging on his forehead.

He surged forward, grabbing Tails by the neck and slamming him downwards. Tails yelled out in surprise. Cream rushed forward, arriving before any of the students, who started calling for a fight.

"How do you like me now, little freak!" shouted the boy as he punched Tails, or tried to, Tails dodged it by moving his head two inches.

"Not any better, are you really trying, though?" Tails grinned. The boy continued to redden with rage.

"You have no idea how dead you are going to be when I am done with you!" screamed the boy. Cream gasped and covered her mouth. She thought about rushing in, but figured that would damage Tails' pride. She realized that if he was beat up, he would lose his pride anyway, and besides, he wouldn't be mad at her, probably. She started forward, but Tails saw her, and he shook his head, telling her it'll be fine, let him do this.

Well, in reality, it was just a look, but Cream got the memo. She took a step backward.

In the end, he was sent to the principal's office. Along with the boys, all three of them.

What an awkward situation to tell her mother tonight.

**Thanks for Reading! PLEASE REVIEW!**

**HAVE A GREAT DAY!**


	23. Ode to an OC

**Chapter 23: Ode to an OC**

Zapra laughed, doubling over and nearly falling over in the was still standing there when she finished, only now he was glaring.

"You got flour on my black shirt," he complained.

"I know! You gotta little something on your face, too." The parking lot soon echoed with her boisterous laughter. Manic reached up to touch his face, coming away with powdery fingers. Zapra saw him huff, sending small plumes of flour dust into the air.

When the girl had seen him in the parking lot, she had ran up to him, carrying a small sack. After being thrown at his face, the dust inside went absolutely everywhere. The look on his face had been priceless!

Manic began to chortle with her, drawing his arms in close to his body. All of the sudden , he snapped to attention. A grin spread across his face a split second before he tackled her.

"Who's dusty now?"

"Still you!"

*Line*

"Mr. Jackson, it's after eleven!" Courtney whined. "Can I go home now?"

"No, detention lasts until noon," he replied, flipping through worksheets to grade.

"This is child abuse, and child endangerment," she retorted.

"Till one then," he said calmly. She puffed at her desk, slumping and FINALLY shutting her mouth.

"Courtney?" Mr. Jackson spoke.

"Yes?"

"In the future, please refrain from wearing mini skirts to detention."

Her mouth fell open, before she hissed at him under her breath.

"Heard that, one-thrirty."

"Ugggggggggggghhhhhhhhh."

*Line*

"Hey, Reens!"

The girl turned when her name was called, eyes wide.

"Oh my gosh, you scared me, mija!"

'Sorry, but I wanted to talk to you," she replied, rushing up to Reens.

"Obviously."

"okay, so anyway, i was wondering. You heard about that talent show, right? Tryouts are on April 11, and I was wondering if you.. might want to do it with me?"

"Uh.. I can't really do that sort of thing."

"You sing with the choir onstage, being with another person might have the same affect on your stage fright."

"I don't think so," Reens replied.

"It'll be fun!" she persisted.

"What's the worst that could happen?"

"Don't say that, you'll jinx us."

*Line*

Shade skidded to a stop after a fourth lap, allowing the shade of a tree to provide him with a little protection. Citrus came up the bend, face flushed and panting. He called out to her teasingly, but instead of hearing him, she fell onto her knees, before collapsing onto the dirt path.

"Citrus!" He shouted, running over tot he doe. He bent down, lifting up her head to rest in his lap. Was something wrong with her? His heart started to pound faster. Her sweat dampened his basketball shorts.

"Water, please," she smiled weakly. "Should've eaten breakfast."

"Yes, yes you should have," he replied, glad she was okay. "What were you thinking?"

"Didn't have time," she said between sips from his bottle. He plucked her from the ground and carried her over to the tree, gently resting her against the trunk. Gravel crunched beneath them.

"Citrus, you can't be doing this sort of thing. This is the third time this week. You're not only hurting yourself. You're worrying me, you parents, even Rouge back home is worried."

"About me?" she snapped, suddenly turning cold. "As if. Nobody should care..."

"I care!" Shade shouted in frustration, taking her roughly by the shoulders. "Just shut up! Lies are coming out of your mouth!"

"You-"

Shade pressed his lips to hers, efficiently shutting her up. He hugged her, feeling her shaking body beneath him.

This was going to be a long day.

*Line*

Wind tore at her eyes, making them water. Rough concrete swiftly passed beneath her roller blades. her leather jacket was sipped up, only the pulls flapping in the oncoming gust.

Vixon McFuller was heading toward the fair. Alone, yes, but she emerged with Mobius' finest cotton candy. She saw many people while there, including her best friend Silver. His arm was taken by Blaze, so Vixon didn't bother him, much. What he did tell her was that she needed to be ready.

For what, he wouldn't say.

*Line*

Anne huffed, once again bolting through the thicket and jumping, spinning to kick him in the side. He caught her foot, turned and flipped her over with an "oof" in the dust.

"Again!" Shadow commanded., folding his arms. "C'mon Nurminy!"

"Argh!" she screamed at him, then looked down to hoist herself up. "Why are we even doing this?" she demanded.

"That is a question you're going to have to figure out on your own."

"Can't you just... stop playing games, Shadow?"

"No game. you asked for my help."

She started to sniff, getting her fists ready. They flew toward him, and he again dodged, but got struck in the jaw by her knee. It was, of course, an accident, but it still hurt.

"You know, Anne, I've been thinking..." Shadow began, rubbing a sore jaw, "at least you have a mother figure, even if she isn't by blood, what does that matter? She's acted like your mother your whole life, so blood shouldn't matter, because from what I understand, she'd give hers for you."

"That's not it Shadow," she replied, halting. "They are getting divorced."

"And?"

"And?! I've been lied to my whole life Shadow! You can't even begin to understand!"

"No, heaven forbid, I, the guy who's never had any parents, and who was lied to and tricked by the enemy to hurt innocents, would understand you! Chaos, get over yourself! Other people have worse problems, and you have friends to help you through it, because, trust me, you will get through it. How you come out on the other side is up to you."

She stood completely still, not daring even a twitch. Tears leaked from her eyes, silently wetting the dirt beneath her. The black hedgehog frowned.

"Anne..."

"Stop it, just stop. I know everybody has their own problems, some more serious than others, but everyone has their own strength and capacity. You must understand this," she explained quietly. "I know I'm not in mortal danger, but emotions matter too."

"Bethany..."

"I love you, Shadow, and I am here for you. I hope you'll open up to somebody."

At this she walked off, pushing through their protective wall.

"Bethany!"

She didn't stop, but even if she had, he didn't know what he would have said.

**Please Review!**


	24. It was awful, being at war with you

**Chapter 24: It was awful, being at war with you...**

Monday was awkward to say the least, especially because there was testing for sophomores that day. Manic, Sonic, Sonia, and Sallywere all absent. The four that remained were Shadow, Amy, Anne, and Knuckles. The two freshman chatted quietly and Knuckles was texting his girlfriend.

"Guys, what does ROFL mean?" Asked the echidna.

"Rolling on the floor laughing, Shadow grumbled, flipping over his chicken with a fork.

"Should she be doing that?" Knuckles wondered.

"No idea, why don't you ask her?"

"Can't she's..."

"Off campus lunch," Shadow supplied.

"Good Idea!" Knuckles shouted. "I'll be back, see you guys later."

"Bye, Knuckles!" The girls called.

Shadow sat alone and sulked, thinking.

*Line*

White ears perked up from the laundry pile strewn across the living room floor. There were three distinguished piles, and little snippets were here and there, well, everywhere.

"Knuckie? What are you doing home? School doesn't let out for another three and a half hours." Rouge grinned.

"Juniors have off campus lunch," Knuckles said, the bent down help his girlfriend with the laundry. "What's going on here?"

"Spring Cleaning," replied the bat. She was setting piles that had previously been on her lap onto the floor. "Have you eaten yet?"

"No, and I left my food at the table..."

"Cmon then, let's get you fed," Rouge unfolded her legs, shoving off the ground to get up. She hadn't quite got the hang of this yet, so the attempt at getting up didn't work properly. Knuckles chuckled and offered her a hand. She accepted with a wide smile.

The couple walked together to the kitchen, where both mobians went to work. Knuckles grabbed a pan, pulled a spatula from a drawer and lit the gas burner. He turned around to get the eggs, but stopped and stared at Rouge.

For just a brief moment, she was bending over the counter, elbow braced on it, the other hand on her lower back. Her eyes were shut and ears lowered as she inhaled softly. Knuckles could see her baby bump through his extra large T-shirt.

"Rouge are you okay?" He crossed the kitchen floor, moved her hand and started rubbing the palm of his hand back and forth on her back. She moaned.

"Yeah, just a little back pain," Rouge looked up at him. "Knuckles, I just realized, we're going to need a place for the baby to sleep! A nursery!"

The echidna blinked, because he hadn't though about this either.

"This is going to be fun!" Rouge straightened, grabbing his hand.

"What about lunch?" He asked.

"Well, yeah, first that," she replied. The echidna moved past her to the fridge, opening the door to retrieve the eggs, only to find an empty carton.

"Uh,Rouge, where are the eggs?"

"You ate the last of them this morning, and I haven't bought more yet."

"Oh," Knuckles tapped his chin. He shouldn't eat the same thing anyway. "Then what should I eat?"

"Try some fruit, or maybe something from dinner last night," Rouge snapped as she turned of the pan. "Instead of wasting gas."

"Are you okay?" Knuckles pulled out a box of strawberries. "You're acting weird."

"Weird, how am I acting weird? Is wanting to-"

"Woah, chill honey, you just seem on edge is all." Knuckles went to grasp her hand, but she snuggled into his chest.

"I'm sorry. My emotions are everywhere, and I don't know what's wrong. What's more, how are we going to be parents? We're still in high school and there is no one to look after the baby next year while we are in school." Rouge wrapped her arms around his torso. He sighed.

"I know."

*line*

"Hey, Manic, how was the test?"

"Easy," he replied, not looking at her, "but long."

"Oh yeah, that's the worst kind." Anne commented.

There was a period of awkward silence. It was awkward because Anne wanted to talk, and he didn't.

She departed for eighth period looking very annoyed. Manic didn't really care, she could do whatever she wanted.

She could go prance in meadows with faker for all he cared.

*line*

Amy walked out as the bell rang, stepping into the hallway ready to haul herself to the bus after a long Monday.

"Hey Ames, how's it going?" Sonic laughed beside her. She smiled.

"It's Monday. You seem chipper, did you sleep after the test?" She replied.

"Yes, ma'am, Amy, remember that date?" She nodded. "Well I would like to take you out to a restaurant, if that's okay."

"I though Ice Cream was the date?"

"Nope, that was just us talking. I didn't plan that. I'll pick you up at 6 on Friday, how does that sound?"

"Perfect."

The pair walked down the stairs, Sonic shoving his hands in his pockets on the way to Amy's bus, telling jokes and stories as they went.

They arrived, and Amy turned to wave good-bye, but her arm was pinned to her side as he quickly squeezed her. Shivers ran up her arms and electricity made her hairs stand on end. He pulled away from the hug, smiled, said "Later" and ran off. As she watched him go, Amy put a hand on her chest, to feel her hammering heart.

"Hey, Amy!" Shouted Anne from the bus, startling Amy. The pink hedgehog ran into the large yellow vehicle.

Sonic the hedgehog had hugged her. _Her._ _Amy Rose._ The annoying little girl that used to follow him and absolutely obsess over him.

Once the buses left, Amy stared out the window, softly smiling to herself. His touch still lingered. Green trees and grasses lazily passed the window. Green was one of her favorite colors.

*Line*

Shadow pushed through the shrubbery and quietly crossed his fingers that she would be there. Leaves tickled and branches scratched his bare arms.

He had stupidly driven here straight from his work, so his short sleeved polo for work was dirty, muddy and maybe a little torn, too. The color was once bright yellow, now it was just a brownish yellow. That's what happens when you drive through a construction zone.

But it was nessecary.

She huddled close to the ground near the middle of the clearing. Her face was hidden, but her shoulders were shaking, her feet crossed and barefoot. Not even flip flops. He had gotten the text during the last ten minutes of his shift. He had clocked out as soon as possible and had ran to his motorcycle, not having proper shoes to run faster than a vehicle.

At first he had wondered why Amy had texted him when she knew he was on duty, but everything made sense once he read it.

**Anne's gone missing!**

But she wasn't there. You can probably guess who was.

"Hey," Shadow called to Control. She looked up, eyes puffy. Shadow sat next to her on the damp ground. "It'll all be alright. Or something like that."

*line*

Manic looked back from the TV, and got off the couch. The knock resonated in the house again. Manic yelled he was getting it. Aleena shouted thank you from upstairs. Manic chuckled and opened the door. Thunder crashed, and lightning lit up her face for a moment. Manic switched on the porchlight.

Anne stood out in the rain, everything soaked and her arms outstretched for a hug. Manic gladly did so, pulling his soaking friend inside. She squeezed him tightly. He squeezed right back.

"What's the matter?" Manic asked softly. The indigo hedgehog just shook her head. "It's okay."

After a few minutes, she finally said something.

"It was awful, being at war with you."

**Thanks for reading! Please Review! **


	25. Preperations

**Chapter 25: Preperations**

_Ding Dong_

"Amy, come in!" Knuckles grinned as he opened the door wide and let a gust of the warm breeze inside. Amy, clad in a baggy stained gray T-shirt and basketball shorts, grinned from the doorway.. Rouge called out from the back room.

"Knuckie! Who is that?"

"Rouge! It's so good to see you!" Amy shouted. Knuckles shut the door and hurried to the room. Down the hallway, to the left and through a doorless doorway (Knuckles had taken taken out of to get furniture through.)

"It's a shame, Amy, you missed moving a bunch of boxesboxes," chorused Anne from the floor.

"I'm so sorry I missed _that_," the sakura hedgehog replied. Anne laughed.

"Grab the sweep, would you?" She asked.

"You mean the broom?" Amy giggled, but went to fetch it never the less. She returned and got go work.

"Stop, you're doing it wrong," said Anne.

"What do you mean?" Amy asked. Anne stood up, took the broom and proceeded to correct Amy on how to sweep properly. Rouge laughed.

"See that's how it's done," Anne muttered pointedly. Amy smiled and nodded.

"Oh yeah, I see now."

"You just got me to do it for you," Anne realized sourly.

"Maybe," Amy shrugged. The girls laughed. Manic knocked on the door frame with his finger. His arms were full of plastic mats.

"Hey, Amy, good to see you. Rouge, these go around the walls right?"

"Yeah, by the baseboards."

"Which color did you choose?" Amy wondered.

"Knuckles wanted to paint it red, but we decided on a peach color," Rouge smiled and squatted to help out down the mats. Anne carried out the cleaning supplies to bring back plastic trays and rollers. Knuckles provided the two cans of paint. The color read "soft Peach blossom". Amy took one, filling two of the four trays. Anne filled the others while Knuckles came in and opened the window for some ventilation.

All of the friends were wearing old raggedy clothes that could be ruined. Paint would, without a doubt, get everywhere. Knuckles left, and soona fyer power tools could be heard outside. Sonic and Tails were out there helping him build a shelf for his daughters room.

"So, Rouge, you thought of any names yet?" Anne gently dipped her roller into her tray of paint. Rouge hummed in thought.

"Maybe Angela? Or Kimberly? I like that one," Amy commented.

"I was thinking Juliet or Ariel," Rouge finally said. Manic nodded.

"Ariel?" Amy paused and tapped her chin.

"Speaking of names, what's Knuckles real name?" Anne looked genuinely curious. Amy shrugged. Manic chuckled.

"Roger Nahuatl," Rouge replied. "You won't believe how long it took for me to figure that out.

"Anne, could you get the higher part over here?" Amy called.

"You bet."

*line*

"More blankets!" Sticks cried. "We're going to need them to survive the winter!"

"Sticks, it's the middle of spring," Vixon said. "Why in choas would we need so many blankets?"

"We must prepared for the apocalypse to last for many seasons."

Ever since Silvers warning, Vixon had been thinking non stop about what he had tried to earn her about. So with Sticks help, she had thought up defense mechanisms for every scenario she could think of. They were building a shelter from aliens (at least Sticks was sure it was so).

"I'm sure it won't last that long," Vixon carried a can of oats into the small underground burrow. "And it might not be an apocalypse at all. Maybe he was just trying to intimidate me when we faced off at that ping pong booth."

Was she over thinking this?

*line*

"KNUCKLES!"

The echidna turned around as his name was called, switched off his screwdriver, and took off the goggles. Sonic was tapping his foot on the pavement in the driveway.

"What do you need, Sonic?" He asked. The speedster stopped the noise.

"Where are the screws?"

"Depends which ones-"

"The wood screws."

"Oh, they're in the bottom left of the box, you can't miss them," Knuckles told him. "Now dont make a mess." The echidna flipped his goggles down and turned the tool back on. The screw drilled into the top of the table. One of the legs rested against his shoulder. The side table would go next to the rocking chair, which Tails was taking care of. He switched off the screwdriver.

"Thanks for helping, guys," Knuckles said. The two friends nodded.

"No problem, Knux," Sonic replied, screwing in a metal bracket on the crib.

Metal changed to the floor.

"Sonic, you're such a klutz."

*line*

"I'll be back, I gotta pee," Rouge spoke, setting down her roller and pulled off her mask. The rest nodded. She got up and left the room.

"Manic, are you going tot the Choir banquet next week?" Anne mentioned. The paint was emitting noctious fumes, so all the hedgehogs were also wearing masks.

"Yeah, why?" Manic replied, his voice slightly muffled.

"Are you going to ride the bus?" Amy questioned.

"Yep," both replied in unison. Amy smiled to herself.

"I'll you both there."

There was a scream from inside the house.

"Rouge!" Anne got her feet immediately. "Did you fall in?"

"Nope!" Rouge yelled. "There a spider!"

"I got you homie!" Anne rushed out of the room, dropping her roller in the tray.

Manic burst into laughter. Amy joined in and even had to put down her roller and hold her side.

She didn't know why she was laughing so hard, but boy did it feel good.

*Line*

"Thank you, Anne, you're a darling." I smiled and picked up the dead bug with some tissue paper

"Which reminds me. I need to take my prenatal pill."

"How do I picking up a dead spider help you remember your prenatal vitamins?" I asked. She just smiled and dried her hands on a paper towel.

"Whens lunch?" asked Manic as I walked back into the room. I pulled my phone from my back pocket.

"In a half hour."

Sonic popped his head by the window. Amy waved and stuck out her tongue.

"Just checking on my favorite girl."

**Please review! Have a great day!**


	26. Surprise!

**Chapter 26: SURPRISE!**

**Hey, y'all! You better get excited for this one! It's the finale! Well, part one of the Finale, but hold onto your socks!**

I never thought such a beautiful night could so wrong so quickly. It started out so wonderful, too.

Music boomed in the background, countless teenagers crowded the floor, talking amongst themselves. Metal chairs lined one wall of the room, and streamers wiggled from the ceiling. The circle of mobians in the center of the room were standing around a dance competition between Sonic Mach and Zapra whats-her-face. Sonia was laughing with Amy within the circle. Reens was probably around here somewhere, and, well, Manic and I were sitting down on some of those chairs and talking.

"And he says its not food, like it's not what our ancestors lived off of. Then I said, well our ancestors only lived till the age of 30, so you go have fun with that. Bread is totally food," I was saying. Manic snorted, then lifted the water cup to his lips. His other went up to stop me from talking so he wouldn't laugh it out if his nose.

"Seriously?" He asked when he was done. I nodded. He chuckled. "Wanna hear something?"

"Definitely," I replied.

The Choir Banquet was a grand occasion. All of Forest High's choirs were together to celebrate the year. It was formal, Manic wore a black tux and sea green bow tie. I had my legs on the seat beside me, so my skirt was draped across it.

"One time I was playing a virtual reality game with my bro Sonic, and Robotnick trapped us inside. So we were like " ahh" and he was like "muahahahahahaha" and then Sonia came and and we was like "pew pew" and he like died. It was great fun."

"You're such a great story teller, Manic." I mumbled sarcastically. Manic smiled and agreed with me.

One of my favorite songs came on, and it was a slow song, so I dragged Manic out to the dance floor. He was stumbling due to laughter. We found a spot surrounded by people we know. I halted, placed his right hand on my hip, and grasped his left hand with my right. My left hand laid on his shoulder. I started swaying.

"You sure know what you're doing," Manic chortled, starting to sway with me. I smiled. Glitter fell to the floor from my dress. The instrumental ended, so I started singing with it. Manic would join in on parts he knew. Which included the chorus, if that. My hand started to slip off his shoulder.

"_I have a dream, I have a dream, leave me to dreeeeeeeam,_" I giggled. My vowels were absolutely horrid, due to my grin, but it didn't matter.

For the first time in a long while, I was completely happy.

*Line*

This is what Manic had been looking forward to the most. Having Anne in his arms, content and calm. Dancing with her was so very peaceful in his once chaotic life. His hand was on her wide hips and he was a bit giddy. His palms were sweating a little, but neither seemed to mind. They were close, but not close enough for her to smell his bad breath.

He was staring right into her hazel eyes. Her dress was long, flowing from Midnight blue at the top to sky blue at the bottom. The whole dress was covered in sparkles. Manic's favorite part, however, was the top. The dress was indeed strapless, but she wore a shawl to covor it. Her quills were pulled back and curled into a delicate bun. Standing next to her, Manic somehow felt underdressed in just his tux. He'd actually gotten quite a nice haircut the day prior, but dang, did she look goooooooood.

The two were having such a great time, before they knew it, the music was turned off for awards and dinner. Everybody was told to take a seat, so she led him toward a table. Sonic, Amy, Sonia, and Reens also sat down. Sonic wore a dark gray suit with the top of his shirt unbottoned. Amy in a knee length scarlet dress accented with a fake Rose on the belt, Sonia in a deep purple and blue outfit, silver sequins dotting blouse and twirling around her skirt. Reens, her dress simple and light blue, was sitting to Anne's right. Manic sat down to her right. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"So, did you win?" Manic asked his brother. Sonic shook his head.

"Tie," he replied. "I asked her to sit with us, but she sat with her date."

"Date?"

"She lost a bet."

"Hmm I see," Manic continued. "I thought it was weird she was at the Choir Banquet while she herself was not in choir."

"Yeah," Sonic sat down beside him.

*Line*

She squirted some shampoo into her palm. Rouge started to lather up the bubbles and rubbed her hair clean. She stood under the water to rinse out the suds, but hissed as some got in her eyes. The diamond bat looked down to clean her body, but gasped as she saw the scarlet drips in the bathtub, before it was gone. Her eyes shut tight against the tension that constricted her in the following moments.

The but huffed as it passed. She squatted, legs spread wide to make room for her baby, to inspect where the blood had come from. She didn't see anything, decided it wasn't important, and finished her shower with no more complications.

Rouge was pulling her sweater on when it happened again. She sucked in a breath and rested her palm on her side.

The doctors had told her about this thing called "early labor", which is what Rouge thought she was experiencing. It was completely normal, with mild contractions.

So she went to go watch TV with Knuckles.

*Line*

Shadow swore outloud. He had taken a patrol all by himself tonight, due to his team having other plans.

But, this was _literally _the worst time for Knuckles to take a night off. He would have to call in the team. That's how bad this was.

" HO HO HO," Dr. Eggman was grinning wickedly from his perch.

How soft the ground felt when he was thrown into it.

*Line*

"This party's a blast!" Amy shouted excitedly. The sakura hedgehog had finished her food long ago, and was just waiting for her friends to finish. Sonic had ran to the bathroom, unable to contain all the fruit punch he had consumed.

There was a loud crash, the result of a clumsy student by the candy bowl. Little pieces covered the floor, and two janitors went to get mops and brooms.

"Nice going!" Someone yelled, but the party resumed as it was before. Couples were already back on the dance floor, begging for the music to start again.

It never would.

A rumble shook the room. The wall on the far side crumbled and chunks of it flew in all directions. Multiple teens erupted into screams and ran for cover. Dust rolled out from where the chunks landed, so Amy coughed as she dove underneath the table. Sonia and Manic followed, Manic pulling Anne with him. Reens didn't appear. The table cloth completely blocked their view of what was going on. So, they crouched on the cold tile floor while they waited.

"Attention! People of Möbius! This is your new leader speaking! Come out and bow, or prepare to be robotisized!" A sneering voice, unfamiliar to Amy, bellowed. Amy watched as Sonia and Manic's eyes widened. They apparently recognized this tyrant. Manic swept the remainder of Anne's dress underneath the tablecloth.

Amy couldn't wait for Sonic to get back.

"Hey! _IDIOTA! _Come take a shot at this! " Reens called out. Amy couldn't see her, but she could definitely hear her. Amy, despite warnings, raced out from underneath the table and shot straight for the men's restroom. Sonic would be able to help.

Luckily, the Fatman sitting in his robot didn't notice her, for he was too busy firing at Reens, who kept dodging lazers and lunging closer to the pile of rubble.

The door slammed behind her.

"Sonic!" She screamed, then covered her mouth. She didn't mean for it to be that loud.

"Ames?! What are you doing in the boy's bathroom?!"

"They need your help!"

*Line*

"Stay here, I'm going to go help Reens," Manic smiled softly at Anne. She grabbed his hand to keep him from leaving.

"I'm coming with you," she said firmly.

"No, you don't know Robotnick like I do. He'll-"

"I don't care who Robotnick is, I'm going to help you. I know how to fight."

"Fine, but if you get hurt, I'll never forgive you."

"Deal, let's go."

"Wait for me!" Sonia whispered urgently, struggling to free her medallion from the collar of her shirt.

So, the three friends slid out from underneath the table.

"Long time no see, Robutnick!" Manic shouted. The Fatman turned, glaring him down with red eyes. The laser fire now directed tlat him. Sonia and he split up into two separate directions, while Anne charged for center.

*Line*

"Shadow!" Reens whisper yelled. She had seen the black hedgehog crash through the wall. Now that the fire was no longer trained on her, she could look for him properly.

A groan creeped out from underneath a pile of rocks.. Reens started to move aside some rubble, but large one stood in her way. If only Knuckles were here, she wouldn't have to use it.

Alot of the drinks had fallen to the floor in the crash. The liquids pooled on the tiles. Reens stood, goosebumps running up her arms, despite them being covered. A touch ran up her spine and out to the tips of her fingers.

She called out to the water with her movements, and since she hadn't done this in quite a while, it was reluctant to follow, but it did. Wiggly blobs picked themselves up from the ground and gathered into one shimmering orb of clear liquid.

The girl went to work, slamming the water into the rock at first, trying to shove it, but realized that didn't work. Instead, she used the water to slice over and over again, trying to build up pressure. Water had the ability to cut steel, so a flismy wall should be no problem.

Within a minute or two of this, Reens heard another groan, so she gave up the rythmic x idea and, along with the help of her building frustration, completely sliced the rock in half. The water was an extension of her own body at this point, so it just swiped the half off of Shadow.

Pressure lifted from her shoulders and hands as she let the water go. It fell in a ring around as she rushed to his side.

His arm was twisted in an unnatural way, and bruises covered his entire body. A cut above his left eye was bloody, but it had already scabbed and started healing. Which meant his arm was healing in the wrong position.

The Ultimate Life Form had a sped up healing ability, otherwise he wouldn't be that ultimate, would he?

She would have to rebreak his arm and set it straight.

And it was going to hurt.

*Line*

"Rouge, are you okay? That's the third time you've gone to the bathroom in the span of a half hour..." Knuckles wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, who snuggled into his chest after she sat down.

"Don't act like you know my pain," she joked while shifting to get comfortable. "The baby is pushing against my bladder."

"Oh, well at least you won't have to deal with that in a month.

"Hopefully she'll be here by then," Rouge chuckled, then turned her attention toward the screen. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing, I paused it."

"Aww, thank you, Knuckie."

"Welcome."

It was fifteen minutes before she got up again. And it was to answer the door.

*Line*

"Come out, Hedgehog!" Dr. Robutnick bellowed. He was, of course, looking for Sonic, who he knew was around because of his siblings, but he and Amy hadn't returned yet.

"Hey, Robutnick!" I shouted, picking up one of the tiny robots running around and chucking it at him. It sent him . Eggman, the other one, was busy with Sonia. In my small victory, I neglected to watch my back.

"Sorry, princess," an Australian accented voice grumbled behind me. I was grabbed off the ground by huge orange arms. The owner of the accent spoke again. "Don't struggle, I won't hurt you."

"Manic!" I shouted, not because I needed help, but Dr. Eggman had thrown Sonia at him. He turned and they collided, collapsing.

"Looks like I've beaten all of you. Prepare to be ROBOTISIZED!" Dr. Robotnick cackled cruelly.

"Not quite yet, 'butnick!" Sonic came out of the restroom at full speed and sent a hurling chunk of wall at him.

"Sonic, where were you? You almost missed the whole battle!" Dr. Eggman smiled and pushed a button.

"Sorry, Egghead, had to wash my hands." Sonic dodged the onslaught easily.

"I'll get you hedgehog!" Robutnick screamed, and both went after him.

A loud crash rang out as Amy batted the guy's head. I dropped to my feet, looking up and smiling gratefully.

"Amy, go help Sonic, I'll check if those two are all right, then I'll call for help."

"With pleasure," she took off. I ran toward Manic and Sonia.

"Hey, are you guys okay?" I asked when I got there. They didn't respond right away, but I heard some groaning so I swiped my phone open and dialed Shadows number.

A ringing was heard close by.

"Hello?"

"Reens? What are you doing with Shadows cell?"

"You best get over here, we're going to need your help."

She hung up.

"Anne! Are you okay? How'd dingo get to ya?" Manic was up and had just noticed me. Sonia was leaning on her brother, still unconscious, while Manic used his hand to fan her face. At first I wondered who Dingo was, then remembered Manic had seen the orange guy get me.

"We need to go, lemme help you up." I held Sonia upright until we carried her towards where I had heard the sound. That pew pew sound? It was going off over and over again. Manic stumbled once, still dizzy from being slammed into his sister.

Reens was sitting in a puddle. Scratch that, the puddle was surrounding her. As we got closer, it became visible she was sitting on someone.

"Hold still, Shadow, your arm is healing wrong!'" She scolded.

"It hurts," we heard Shadow moan. I helped ease the siblings down to the ground before sprinting to help Reens.

"Anne, hold his other arm down. Shadow, for chaos' sake stop moving!"

"What's going on?" I did what I was told. Reens placed her knee on his chest and wrenched his arm across her other one. The blood drained from my face as the crack of his bones breaking followed. Shadow gasped and slammed his fist into the ground. He took a huge breathe in from his nose and tried to breath easier. Reens took ahold of the hem of her dress and ripped an entire strip from it.

"This night's gone to hell anyway." She grumbled as she made a sling for his arm.

"Guess that's my fault," Shadow mumbled. "Somebody tell me what's going on."

"Sonic and Amy are keeping the doctors busy-" I began.

"By themselves? Let me up. That faker can't take both on by himself."Shadow struggled to sit up. The gears in my head started turning.

"Shadow, stay here, and keep an eye on Sonia. Manic, Reens, and I will go help Sonic..." I paused. "You should get that arm casted..."

"No hospital," Shadow said grimly.

"What do you mean?" I motioned Manic over.

"Hospital is gone. First thing they destroyed."

With no hospital, all the injured would have no where to go. They would die. So... Many... Lives...

"So, where should you go? You shouldn't be near the battle." Reens helped Shadow sit up. "Where is the rest of your team?"

"Knuckles is at home with Rouge. I told him to take a night off," Shadow explained.

"Why would you do that?" Manic crouched beside me.

"I thought it was going to be a regular patrol. It's usually quiet."

A scream cut the ultimate lifeform off, followed by Sonic shouting Amy's name.

Manic immediately bolted up and jumped over the rocks to go help. I got to my feet and picked up my dress before running out myself. Amy lay limp in Dr. Eggman's mechanical arm.

*Line*

Manic smashed a robot's face in before pressing his back to Sonic's. They revolved in a circle, lashing at any robots that got too close.

"We're making no progress!" Sonic yelled in frustration.

"Why don't you just spin them all away, these guys don't look nearly as tough as the SWAT bots back home."

Before Manic had finished his sentence, his brother had gone to do just that. When the piles of bots sparked and sizzled, no more remained upright. Robotnick had left at least a few minutes ago when Eggman had grabbed Amy, leaving just the latter to do the dirty work. Manic could count at least a couple teens missing.

They had gone to be robotisized.

Manic shuddered, remembering what the robotisizer could do. He turned to face Eggman, but surprise shook him enough to freeze him in place.

Anne was on the aircraft with the two, but he had Amy sitting on the chair while Anne was struggling against the keyboard, Eggman's hand on her chest to hold her down. Her hand that wasn't clawing at Eggman's was desperately searching to her side. Manic watched as she picked up Cubot, his minion, and slammed it into his head. He jerked back, allowing Anne to slide of the control panel.

**OH! PLEASE REVIEW!**


	27. Aaaaand It got Worse

**Chapter 27: Aaaand it got worse**

**It actually took me a while to get started on this one. Enjoy!**

The annoying buzz of his cell phone receiving a call rudely woke up Tails at nearly 10 o clock at night. Normally, Tails wouldn't be this mad, but he had just had an exhausting day that had just ended. Who in chaos would be calling him? He answered none the less, and groaned into the phone.

"Tails, buddy, I need you to wake up and help me," Sonic was yelling over explosions and shouts of terror.

"Chaos, what's going on?" Tails sat up, fully awake now. His namesakes twitched nervously.

"It's really complicated, but what I need you to do is find somewhere safe and stay there with Cream and Ms. Vanilla. Use the -ahh!- Dark Gem communicator to contact me when you get there. Be sure to be prepared for lots of injured people. Chaos, for heaven's sake,-" He hung up at that point. Tails tried to process the speedster's instructions for a moment, then immediately jumped up and started to dress. He was searching for pants when he texted Cream.

_Get Ready to leave for a while. Your mom needs to pack a medical first aid kit. I'm coming to get you and I'll explain later._

"Found 'em!" Tails exclaimed, then sheepishly looked at his closed door. His adopted family would be asleep. It was best if he left them out of this, Tails had a suspicion this had to do with Eggman. Tails flew across the room to fill a back pack with anything he might need. A water bottle, a blank book, his comb, and spare clothes. He couldn't think of anything else.

His phone dinged.

_Okay, we'll be ready, Miles._

A smile broke out as he shouldered his bag and put his phone in his pocket.

"Miles?" A small girl's voice echoed in the hallway. Tails' eyes widened and he creeped to the door to ease it open. Outside stood Lily, his adoptive sister, and she was rubbing sleep from her eyes and holding her stuffed animal close to her chest.

"Miles, what's going on?" Lily looked up, sleepy and confused. Her pink pajama dress was wrinkled from sleep.

"Did I wake you? I'm sorry." Tails took her hand to lead her back to bed. She followed, half asleep. "Time to go to sleep again." The little girl yawned and climbed back into bed.

As Tails opened the door and locked it behind him downstairs, he didn't even feel even a twinge of guilt for leaving his new family. Never felt like they were fmaily in the first place. Tails clipped the clasp if his bag before spinning his tails rapidly to gain altitude. He adjusted the angle a bit. Within a few minutes, he had gained enough speed.

He loved it up here. The sky was one of the few places he felt powerful and free. The other was, of course, when he was saving the world with Sonic. Which most of the time included the former anyway.

The house Tails knew was Creams could be seen in the distance. He flew closer and started to descend. A small bunny's shadow went across a lit window, followed by a rabbit with a scruffy mustache. Tails raised an eyebrow. He didn't recall Ms. Vanilla having a mustache.

_It couldn't be her dad, she told me he was dead..._

Tails landed softly on the cement and started to walk up to the door. His finger pushed the doorbell. It echoed inside the house. The lock clicked as the door opened. An elderly rabbit stood behind it. He was smiling. Tails was just about to introduce himself when the rabbit spoke.

"Well, hello. You must be Miles, come in, come iin." He stood aside and motioned for Tails to come inside. The kitsune obliged.

"I'm looking for Vanilla and Cream Shizuka, are they here by any chance?" The rabbit nodded and grinned underneath his bristly stache.

"Grandpa? Have you seen my water bottle?" Cream bounded into the room, then stopped abrubtly as she saw Tails. "Tails! We're not ready yet, but I see you've met my grandfather."

_Oh that's who this is..._

"Nice tto meet you, Mr. Shizuka," Tails held out his hand. Cream's grandfather gladly shook it. "Are you coming with us?" Cream was the one who nodded. Mr. Shizuka picked up Vanilla's backpack and Vanilla's medical bag from the floor.

"Dad?" Vanilla called from the back room, "where's your comb?"

"Bottom left drawer in the bathroom," Mr. Shizuka turned back to Tails. "Would you like some water?" Tails shook his head as Mr. Shizuka closed the door behind him.

Tails walked into the cozy home and followed Creamas she ran to her bedroom.

"Come on, Cheese, it's time to wake up," Cream urged toward a lump in her covers. The room was dark as the Chao chirped slowly.

"Cream, do you want any help?"

"Thanks, Tails, will you grab my shoes? They're under my bed," Cream ruffled through her drawers and continued to shove clothes into her pack. The kitsune bent to the ground and clipped the clasp on his bag so it wouldn't fall off. Creams sneakers sit patiently underneath her bedframe. Rails pulled them out.

"I'll go help your mom, seeya Cream," Tails stood and walked toward her door.

"Hold on." Cream turned the fox and hugged him tightly. Tails smiled as he returned it. "Thank you, Miles."

When she said his real name, she wasn't even taking a chance of being taken jokingly. Trying to remain serious, she let go and went back to packing. Tails smiled at her effort.

"Since your not leaving my bedroom yet, are you going to tell me what this is about?" Cream set her shoes on the floor and pulled up her jeans before slipping them on. She tied the laces, stood, and picked up her choa from the soft bed.

"I'm not even sure what this is about," Tails admitted. "Sonic just said to get everyone to a safe place and be ready to care for the injured.

"Oh no..."

*Line*

"We need to get put of here!" Shouted Anne. After knocking out Eggman with his own robot, she had jumped from the pod with a half conscious Amy. They were on the ground, now fighting what remained of the enemy, but Anne had discovered something in the corner of the room.

Amy's hammer collided with the last badnik and it crunched into a disk.

A voice came over Manic's communicator.

"There's a bomb! Get out now!" Control shouted. Well, at least Manic thought it was Control.

His heart beat pounded in his ears as he ran toward the exit. He stopped abruptly realizing Anne wouldn't have heard. Turning, he only saw her eyes riddled with fear, before they toppled over each other. Well, thought Manic, that makes twice I've been knocked out in one fight. New record.

The two helped each other up and ran to the exit, holding hands to stay together. A blue streak whooshed past them, trailing red. Sonic had gotten Amy out. As they reached the doors, Anne turned back.

"Sonia!" Manic realized. Reens was struggling to support both the injured hedgehogs she was with. The boy hurried to go help. He reached out to Sonia, noticing with a start his green arn was soaked with dark red. But the drying blood wasn't his. A gash was bleeding on Sonia's head, the blood covering her clothes and caked in her hair. The blood smeared on Manic's black jacket as he took and carried her to the exit. Anger brimmed red in his vision. The blue streak returned and grabbed their sister from his arms.

Robotnick and Eggman had harmed his sister. His family.

*Line*

"Sonic! We're headed to Angel Island. Meet us there."

"Roger that, buddy. Sonic out."

Tails turned to Vanilla.

"Let's get you up there. When we get there, you need to find Knuckles and Rouge's house. They are the only ones that live on this floating hunk of rock. Knock on the door and tell them to turn on the news. Tails grabbed one of her hands while Cream grabbed the other. The older bunny nodded.

His tails spun and Cream started to flap her ears rapidly. Vanilla rose steadily off the ground, a wind picking up and ruffling her hair. It filled her nose with fresh air. Below, her father held the bags as he waited for his turn.

Far off the ground now, Vanilla started to feel dizzy, but they were only halfway to the island. A small mini first aid kit was wrapped around her waist. It would do until her father could get there.

The bunny turned her head to see a smoking building far off. Not like fire smoking, but collapsed dist smoking.

"Mama, get ready!" Cream yelled. Vanilla snapped back to attention. She let go of their hands and dropped the foot onto the ledge. The kids started to descend to pick up Mr. Shizuka. A tig snapped. She spun towards the forest, legs tensing ready to run. Nothing was there, but she did see a light flickering through the leaves, so Vanilla ran towards it, remembering to keep her skirts high enough to keep them from snagging in the underbrush. Throns reaching up from the roots ripped her stockings, but it didn't break her skin at all, Vanilla paid no mind to it.

When the bunny stumbled into the clearing, a petite house was visible, light crawling put of the curtained windows. She assumed this was the right house. Vanilla knocked lightly.

A noise abruptly stopped in the middle of duration. Someone inside the house stirred, before the lock on the door clicked and the oak moved back on its hinges.

"Vanilla? Is everything okay?" Rouge asked, leaning on the door to allow her in. What the bat didn't realize was that Vanilla couldn't fit through the door way with Rouges belly in the way. " you can come in." Vanilla smiled and Rouge backed up.

"Do you guys have cable?" Vanilla asked as she squeezed in. Rouge looked pretty uncomfortable. "You need to turn on the news."

"How did you get up here?" Knuckles asked, but his question would remain unanswered. All three were distracted by the TV as Vanilla changes the channel.

"The Pegasus building has collapsed under robotic fire. The Choir department of Forest High was celebrating there. Most expect the teenagers to be completely buried. With Möbius hospital already destroyed, very few are expected to live until they get to the eastern equivalent in Empire City."

Rouge stumbled and sat down on the couch heavily. Knuckles grabbed her hand to comfort each other.

Vanilla, also shocked, looked grim. Now she knew why Tails had asked her to bring a medical kit.

*Line*

Sonic rushed in moments later, setting down a magenta hedgehog Rouge immediately recognized as Sonia.

"Please help!" He cried. "She won't wake up." Vanilla rushed forward , checking her vitals and the open wound. The rabbit ordered for no one to disturb her as she carried the girl into a back room. Sonic tried to follow, but was shot down.

Möbius hospital, gone?

Knuckles left her on the couch and grabbed a cylindrical rubber ear plug, sticking it in his ear. The blood stained from his face.

"What's wrong, Knuckie?" Rouge asked him, she started to get up, then stopped.

"There's a bomb in the Pegasus building. Going off in five minutes. Sonics just told everyone to come here as fast as they coulddcould." Knuckles looked up from the ground to his girlfriend's aquamarine eyes. "Looks like we are going to have a lot more company.

Rouge raised her eyebrow when he didn't continue.

"Well," she demanded, "what do you want me to do? Put on a pot of tea?"

"No," Knuckles smiled at the joke, but he didn't laugh. "I want you to stay safe until the battle is over."

"It's not just a battle, Knux, it's war. The 'battle' is over. Right now we are just for our lives." Sonic looked grim, and left the house to get his mind away from his sister.

*Line*

Anne screamed as they flew over another speed bump.

"Could you drive anymore insane!?" She shouted, clutching her seatbelt for dear life. The car they had hijacked swerved wildly on the wet road. Manic twisted the wheel, trying to regain control in the rain. Shadow shouted directions from the backseat, and Manic followed, mostly.

Reens tapped Anne's shoulder.

"Are they always like this?" She asked. "Or only when they are in extreme danger?"

"Always."

"I said TURN RIGHT! YOU MANIAC!" Shouted shouted crossly. "How are we going to get to Angel Island now?"

"I don't know how you thought we were going to get up to Angel Island in the first place. It's a FLOATING ISLAND!" Manic yelled.

"Hey!" Anne smacked the dashboard. "Shadow, stop distracting the driver. Manic we were told to meet at Angel Island, so that's what we are going to do. We'll think about getting up later." Her face froze. She leaned over and switched on Manic's earbud.

"-what do you mean, they're not going to make it out of there?"

"Knuckles, if you couldn't see it before there is a giant robot following them!"

Everyone in the car stiffened.

"It's gaining, Sonic what should we do?"

"I'm going to save them."

"Diamond, I swear on chaos, if you put my team in danger, I'll skin your sorry hide." Shadow growled. "You stay put."

"What are you guys going to do then?" Sonic retorted.

"We'll think of something."

"Guys look!" Reens was turned around, looking out the back window. Manic checked the rear view mirror, and curved dangerously to the side of the road as he saw a looming robot behind them, it's mechanical eyes glowing red in the gloomy rain.

"Manic!" Shadow shouted. "Drive you Maniac!"

The green hedgehog twisted the steering wheel again, and Anne dove and gagged in response.

"Can't handle it, Anny?"

"Nope, just ate something that didn't agree with me earlier," she gagged and Reens turned back toward the front. There was water surrounding them after all. Maybe she could use the water to defend them from inside the car. But, as she explained to them, that wouldn't work because-

Somebody crashed on top of the car, and brilliant blazes lit up the night. Everyone but Manic turned around to stare. From glances he took, Manic could see a greenish-blue aura take hold of the robot and smash it against the ground the robot got up, but not unscathed.

"Anyone call for the calvary?" Cried a white hedgehog from a smashed window next to Manic. Shadow groaned and sunk down in his seat.

"Who called you Mophead?" Shadow grumbled from the backseat. Mophead didn't hear him though.

"Silver, throw me at it."

"Blaze, I'm not going to-"

"Do it now!" Blaze retorted back, a white gloved hand grabbing Silvers chest fur and yanking him up onto the roof. Manic turned his attention back to driving. The cliff would be coming up soon. If only be could see through all this rain!

Manic twisted the wheel and the tires squealed beneath them. A metal railing was coming up quickly, blocking most cars to travel on this road from falling to their death at the hands of the ocean.

Anne slapped her hands together.

"That's it! Manic, drive straight into the water."

"Uh-"

"Trust me! Reens, do you think you could help Silver get us up there on the floating island?"

"I mean I could try and have a wave help-"

"Perfect! Do it in my count." Anne rolled down her window and stuck her head through it out in the rain. "Hey!"

"What?"

"Can you use that controlling aura thing to get us up to the floating Island?"

"Yeah, long as we can come!"

" Booyah! On my count!"

There was a crash behind them, and Manic resisted the urge to look.

"One!"

The shrieking of grinding metal.

"Two!"

Manic felt her hand on his arm. He knew that everyone in the car was holding into each other, Shadow even had his hand on Manic's shoulder.

_This is the craziest thing I've ever done._

"Three!"

The railing screeched as it broke and the car, along with all the teenagers in it, plummeted toward the dark crasheing waves.

**MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

**I'm going to leave y'all on that note!**

**Jk!**

*Line*

"Vanilla is patching your sisters head right Sonic?" Rouge asked tentatively a few minutes after Sonic had returned.

"Yeah, she said not to bother her, why?" Sonic turned and gaped.

A torrent of liquid had crashed into the floor, splattering Rouge's legs and the floor. Knuckles grabbed her hand as she started to lose her balance. He supported her as she cupped her hand underneath her swollen abdomen. She yelled in pain without meaning to.

"Oh chaos, that's why!" Sonic shook out his hands and stepped his feet in a panic.

"My water just broke you blue idiot!"

"Harsh," Sonic's ears flattened against his head.

**NOW I'm gonna leave it. Review if you want me to write the birth of baby Knuxouge, otherwise I'll just skip! Oh, and who should help deliver the baby?**


	28. Keep Calm

**Chapter 28: Keep Calm**

**A big thank you for all the reviews an ideas!**

Mr. Shizuka led the way to the house with the two kids following behind. He held a medical and a suitcase, both property of his daughter. When they arrived, screaming was heard inside the house. He tried the door and found it unlocked. As the rabbit entered, he knocked to let them know of his presence.

"I don't know how to deliver a baby!" Sonic cried, helping to support an angry pregnant bat. A large red echidna was helping.

"You think I do?" growled the echidna.

"She's _your _girldriend!" Sonic retorted. Mr. Shizuka's mustache bristled with annoyance. He rushed forward, dropping the bags. The old rabbit took Sonics place and told the blue hedgehog to get towels and hot water immediately. They stood in a puddle of liquidliquid, so he shuffled the couple to a clean place on the wood floor. Sonic sped back with one rag towel.

"Put her on the towel and sterilize your hands, I need you to catch the baby when it comes _shoooting_ out if this woman."

"Why-"

"You're the father aren't you?" Mr. shizuka helped lower the bat to the ground. She looked so confused.

"Who... are you?" She asked. Cream came up behind her and let the bat lean against her.

"Don't worry, Ms. Rouge, he's my grandpa, you are in good hands." Cream assured her.

"Nugget, keep her calm or she will likely kill us all!" Cream smiled and made sure Rouge knew what was going on. Rouge's breathe caught as another contraction hit.

"Knuckles!" She screamed, the towel withing her grasp twisting. The echidna stiffened and grabbed her hand.

Sonic came back in and asked if there was anything else he could do.

"Take Cream's place." He turned to his granddaughter. "Go help your mother." Cream nodded and got up, Sonic slipping to take her place. He looked up at Mr. Shizuka.

"She's still in a lot of-"

"PAIN! Of course she is! You try pushing a screaming watermelon out of your body and tell me how it feels." Mr. Shizuka knelt and started to pull her pants down. "Help me, if you please, Knuckles." The echidna nervoysly grabbed her waistband. "Drape a towel over her legs do the children aren't scarred when they arrive."

"And for heaven's sake, pull yourself together man!"

"Yes, sir!"

*line*

Everyone shuddered when a giant wave hit the car, shooting it up into the air. They weren't nearly high enough though, so Reens tries again, sweat dripping from her brow.

"Just a little higher," mumbled Shadow, his uninjured arm wrapped around Reens hips to keep her from falling.

The car engine was off, and Blaze was in the driver's seat, because Manic was in the passengers, holding onto Anne so she could boss people around from outside the car. Silver was outside as well, holding them aloft in the short intervals between Reens waves.

"Again in 3...2...1!" Higher they went and a blue aura kept them from falling.

"Again in 3...2...1!" Anne shouted again. At first they fell, but they crashed forward, before Silver caught ahold of them again.

"You guys are heavy as heck!" Silver cried. Anne repeated her line again, and Shadow was sure he has heard that tone before. It took him back to days spent in the woods, wet mornings, and dusty afternoons. He had taught her how to fight with that tonw. The thought she'd bebusing the same to boss around other people madebhim smirk.

The edge of the island was visible and this point.

"Just a little further!" Anne screamed in excitement.

"There's a limit," Reens mumbled, "and I just hit mine." Her hands braces against the side of the car, trying to keep her steady. Shadow pulled the girl inside and wipes some rain droplets from his leather jacket. Which she was wearing.

"I believe you can do this," Shadow encouraged, which is something he imagined he would never do. "So why don't you?"

"It's not that I give up, controlling water is physically draining. I'm exhausted..."

"You have to do it one more time."

"Okay, I'll try," she promised and Shadow helped her back out into the dreary drizzle.

"Again in 3..2..."

*Line*

"It hurts!" Rouge yelled, crushing both Sonics and and Knuckles hands.

"Keep Calm and dig deeper woman!" Mr. Shizuka called. Tails was on the other side of the room, trying to contact the rest of the team. They still hadn't arrived.

"Relax, you should breathe for a minute," Mr. Shizuka tapped Rouge's foot. "You're doing great!"

Rouge, who previously was up on her elbows, flopped backwards and took a deep breath in. Knuckles took his hand back and stared at it as it throbbed with his heartbeat.

"You got a really strong grip, honey," Knuckles commented, rubbing pain from his joints.

"Don't even start to 'honey' me, you-ahh!" Rouge tensed and curled in again. "Something just happened!" MR. Shizuka looked underneath the towel.

"This baby is coming now, somebody geylt a blanket and some more towels." Mr. Shizuka ran out to wash his hands. When he returned, Knuckles was in front of Rouge with a towel, ready

"I need something to squeeze!"

"Here, take my hand," Sonic offered. Rouge grabbed it which made Sonic regret his decision. Their screams echoed together in in the house.

*Line*

"Now!" Anne motioned with her arms. With tremendous effort, Reens rocketed a small wave into a giant pillar of water that smashed the underside of the car. The vehicle shot upward so much they could see the top of the lone house built on the island. All Silver had to do was guide the galling car down to a safe stop.

"Falling with style," Manic mumbled from behind her.

"Reens!" Shadow pulled the girl inside and touched her cheek. Reens eyes were closed and her arm feell limp when the black hedgehog raised it. "Wake up!" Her eyelids fluttered.

"You did it!" Anne shouted into the tumbling droplets. Her shawl, stained with grease, ruffled in the wind. In the backseat, Reens smiled softly and rested against Shadow.

The car was like an elevator, that's what it felt like anyway. Just the weightless feeling really. The tires touched the ground softly, flattening delicate blades of grass. Blaze practically fell out and dry heaves onto the grass. Silver landed next to her and patted her back.

Manic opened his door, much to the surprise of Anne. He kneeled on the soft grass, taking in gulps of air that weren't right next to "Shadow's stench" as he put it. It was true the car reeked of sweat, for obvious reasons. When he got up, left behind were wet grass marks. Manic literally couldn't care less.

Screeching of metal against rock interrupted any thoughts Manic might have had.

"What are you doing?" He asked. Blaze shoved the car off the cliff into the water below.

"Getting rid of useless things," she replied.

"Okay, whatever."

"Oh sweet wet ground, how I missed you!" Manic pay down fully on the damp grass. Anne clapped her hands and stood in front of everyone.

"Come on guys, time to get up!" The indigo hedgehog barked. "We need to get to the meeting point."

"Wait, now that we're not in critical danger, how do you know about that?" Manic raised his head to falre at her.

"You guys said it enough for me to figure it out, and besides that, I have one of the Dark Gem communicators," Anne offered him a a hand. He put his hands behind his head.

"Why?" Manic awaited the answer as he stared at her accusingly.

Anne hesitated, looking to Shadow as if to ask for permission. Shadow nodded. She took a breath in.

**'Kay, I'm going to see y'all next chapter, right? Sorry if this one is kinda short, but the final two chapters are going to be looooooooong. Promise!**

**And the final question concerning this story.**

_**Who is**_** Control?**


	29. Secrets and Trust

Chapter 29: Secrets and Trust

Amy sat, by herself, in the Mach's living room. The house was quiet, not a sound was made save for the sound of her breathing. She was waiting for; one, Sonic to get back; or two, Aleena Mach to come home. So far, neither had happened.

On the counter, Amy noticed, a small vase sat with a snapped rose, it's petals drooping and thorns dull. Around the flower were bills and papers and the like, but the crystal vase kept grabbing her attention.

The door banged, then swung open to reveal Aleena Mach in all her glory. Well, in reality, it was just a pansuit, but with a fire blazing behind her, she looked awesome. She slammed the door shut, and locked it as the older hedgehog noticed Amy.

"Oh, hi dear, whatcha doing here?" Aleena strode forward towards a closet.

"Sonic dropped me off here, then went back for his sister. Sonia's pretty beat up," Amy folded her arms. "He said he was going to take her to the hospital.

"I am not sure how he would manage that, there isn't a hospital for miles.," Aleena disappeared into the closet, and emerged with a sceptor. It sparkled in the dim light.

"Woah, what's that?" Amy ogled, forgetting what Aleena had said altogether.

"It's the Royal Scepter, been in our family for generations."

"Royal?"

"Yes, and I have to keep it safe from Robotnick," Aleena said softly. "At least until my son arrives to take it to a secure location."

"Doesn't that mean that Sonic is a prince?" Amy held her bag strap in her hands. She twisted it.

"Of course, dear. What kind of Queen would I be if I didn't have a prince for a son?" She asked, chuckling slightly.

"How do you guys know Robotnick? And why did I meet Sonic when I was eight, but just met you guys this year?"

To answer these questions, Aleena began the the long and treacherous story of Sonic Underground.

*Line*

"Now push!" Mr. Shizuka instructed in the other room.

'Don't you tell me when to push!" Rouge snapped back.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Cream asked softly.

"Tell you what?" Tails questioned. The two were in the kitchen, a wall and a half away from the scene. Cream was sitting in a chair, and Tails was leaning on a table.

"Everything, with the Dark Gems and the fact you got burnt during a snowstorm!" Cream continued. "And don't give me that crap about protecting me, it's not going to work."

"Wasn't going to. You didn't need to know," Tails said.

"Oh, so you don't trust me? Is that it? Why don't I-"

"Cream, you being upset about this is stupid."

"Is it Tails, is it really?" Cream folded her arms and wiped a tear from her eye.

"Why are you crying?" Tail slid off the table.

'Because you're right," Cream looked down and sighed. Tails put a hand on her shoulder. He didn't know Cream being wrong about something would upset her this much. "I'm sorry. It is stupid. I'm just worried."

"About what?"

"Amy..."

"Oh, i see. i'm sure Sonic will know where she is."

They walked out to ask, but stepped back into the kitchen silently.

"You're doing great, Rouge!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Don't you tell me how I'm doing!"

*Line*

"Shadow gave it to me," Anne said. Manic growled and face-palmed. "What?" she demanded.

"Why would you get her involved?" He snapped at the black hedgehog.

"We needed help, and she was ready."

"Who are you to decide?"

"The leader of the team," Shadow said firmly. "Reens was out of town visiting a family member when we had that frigid ice storm with Control, so Anne filled in. It was supposed to be a one time thing."

"Wait, waitm" Manic looked at Reens. "You're Control?"

_"Si,"_ Reens replied quietly.

"Unbelievable."

"You better believe it, it's the truth," Shadow pointed out. manic spun to face Anne again.

"Why didn't you tell me?" His voice broke.

"It wasn't my secret to tell," Anne frowned defensively.

"I... I told you everything! you couldnt feel like you could share this with me? That's hurtful, Bethany," Manic straightened to his full height, which was just a couple centimeters above her, but he wanted to look intimidating.

"Manic-"

"NO! You don't get to talk!" manic stormed off into the woods to get to the rendezvous point, leaving Anne red in the face and embarrassed.

_I tell her everything! I can't believe she would keep this from me! I even asked her if she was Control at one point, and she said no, which means she lied, too! _

Manic shoved a rock iwth his shoe, hearing leaves and underbrush crunch behind him. The group had finaly gotten off their bums to follow him, eh? Great for them, then.

Upon arriving, Manic threw open the door and demanded, in a loud voice, to know where Sonic was. He looked down to see Rouge on the floor with a towl draped over her bare legs, Knuckles in front of her looking like he was about ready to wet himself, and Sonic behind Rouge, biting his lip and shutting his eyes, well, shut. an elderly rabbit stood by Knuckles, shouting instructions.

"Oh, Chaos!" shouted Manic as he looked away.

'What are you doing her, you bafoon!" cried Rouge, then seh moaned in pain.

"Gimme a minute," Sonic rushed from the room. Retching echoed before he returned.

"One more push!" The rabbit commanded.

'You said that the last three times!" Rouge retorted.

'Yes, and look how well you're doing!"

Rouge started to shout in frustration, but it turned into a scream instead. Manic flinched.

"I love you, Rouge!" Knuckles shouted,

"I love you, too, Knuckles, but STOP TALKING!" Rouge responded.

"It was completely quiet in the room for a split second before a muffled noise came from the kitchen, Mr. Shizuka walked toward the room, motioning with his hand that it was no matter. shadow came crashing through the door, tackling manic and rolling until they slammed into the couch.

'You freaking douchebag! Little much?" Shadow snapped. Manic jerked his head up.

"You got a problem, buddy?" Manic clenched his fists. Shadow flew at him again, and the two proceeded to have a fight in the middle of the living room.

"You made her cry! Do you feel proud of yourself, little faker?" Shadow barked, aiming a punch towards Manic's rage ridden face.

"You knew! You knew you were putting her in danger!" Manic howled, catching Shadow's arm. The black hedgehog surged forward, ducking and sweeping a led underneath Manic, trying to knock his feet out from under him. Manic jumped, after which Shadow promptly got off the ground.

"I was the one who taught her to defend herself, what did you do? She wanted to help protect this city!"

"I don't care, she wasn't safe!"

"You should care, otherwise you might just lose your little girlfriend!" Shadow had struck a cord.

"She is not my girlfriend!"

This went on for several minutes, with the tow hedgehogs argument growing in volume. Reens finally ran in and realized what exactly was going on. She dove right into the their fight to come between them, slapping both boys. They turned to her, eyes flashing red, then Shadow realized his friend in the corner. That was a good time, as Rouge decided, to squeeze the life out of Sonic's hand again. The blue speedster bit his cheek to keep from screaming.

"Apoligies," Shadow muttered, standing from the floor. He hmmphed at Manic.

"You idiot," Reens said softly, pulling Shadow's shoulder. "You'll break your arm again."

"I'm an idiot? Maybe you need to-"

Reens mutterd something in rapid fire spanish to inturrupt him, nobody in the room had any idea what she was saying though. She sighed and rested her head in her palm, slightly shaking her head.

*Line*

"And what happened after that?" Amy asked, fully involved in Aleena's recount of the triplet's childhood.

"Well, my children and I did form the council of four, and we defeated Robotnick. Sonic was paranoid after all that had happened, so he went to look for Robotnick after he suddenly disappeared from our prison cell." Aleena patted Amy's leg. "He went on this grand quest to defeat evil on 'Mobius', and he all but begged us to come join him. he even talked about some of his new freidns. A two-tailed fox kit, an overactive pink hedgehog, and I remember something about a small young bunny." Aleena smiled. "I think he meant you."

"But I'm not a bunny- oh. Nevermind." Amy giggled.

Since Allena had began the story around an hour ago, the two had moved to the couch, on which they still sat comfortably.

"But one day, the letters stopped coming, so Sonia came to see what was the matter. Manic and I had to flee the city after a huge rebellion, and everyone thought we were dead anyway. They wanted us dead. We searched for this 'Mobius' place, and we found Station Square in our travels. Sonic returned after about a year, but he moved in with us in this house and my cildrean started freshman year at the school I had been teaching at. The principal got fired for I dont't know what, so they gave me a promotion. That's pretty much the part you didn't already know."

"I remember that year and a half! That's when we went to visit Chris! Well, technically it wasn't a visit, cuz we were stuck, but we were in Dr. Eggman's homeworld! That's where we meant Shadow!"

'Who?"

"Oh, Sonic probably salls him faker.."

"That does sound familiar."

"And that's where Knuckles met Rouge, and where Cosmo met Tails and-'

"Didn't Cosmo die?"

"Yes, but parallel worlds as ours-"

A large boom cut Amy off, for the second time that night. The two girls bolted to the closet, and Aleena, fearing the worst, shoved the sceptor into the box it had originally come from.

"I finally found you!" Robotnick bellowed. "Aleena! Come out Come out where ever you are!"

The closet door twisted and was ripped from it's hinges. Both hedgehogs were snatched by robotical arms and wrenched from the closet. A merciless man examined them. Well, he was merciless to the chair, anyway. He shoved them through an opening in a large bin connected to the robot he was operating. A trapdoor shut firmly.

The space inside itself was large, but darkness closed in around them.

What did Robotnick need them for?

*Line*

"HELP ME!"

Manic's ears perked up. The cry had come from outside, so Manic sprinted out there, Reens following. After all, her friend was in trouble.

Metal Sonic had an indigo hedgehof in its grasp, who it was trying to fly off with, but she was struggling frantically. She managed to twist around, her dress clinging to her legs. Her quills whipped at her face, which was pouring tears. Her appendages flailed wildly, but metal Sonic didn't move. her shawl blew off in the wind, but Manic caught it as he ran after her.

He was screaming. Reens jumped off of Manic's shoulder, launching herself at Metal. It caught her the other arm. that's when it started to fly away.

Manic followed it to the edge of the island, but he tripped in his frantic state, sliding on the wet grass. He looked down, his stomach doing a sickening twist at what lay below. He snapped back to Metal Sonic. Manic glared at Manic's un-moving red eyes.

**See you next chapter!**


	30. I Love You

**Chapter 30: I love you**

**Hello, and welcome back my beautiful readers. Just to be clear, Dr. Robotnick and Dr. Eggman are two different people in this story and in it's sequel. They are cousins.**

** This is indeed the last chapter of Forest High School. Enjoy.**

**And oh, TheCrazyClan, you're going to hate this one.**

"Anne! NOO!" Manic yelled. He kneeled in the grass, his bloody arm reaching for her.

"Manic! HELP ME!" Anne screamed, frightened out of her mind.

"I would scream, but I'm just too tired right now," Reens said, folding her arms from Metal's hip.

"You can't take her," Manic told Metal, tears trickling down his muzzle.

"And why not? Dr. Eggman will want these females for his operation." Metal droned. "There is nothing a weak male can do to stop me."

Metal traveled further away, and Anne stopped struggling, exhausted. A large barrel-shaped container was sitting on a cargo ship down below the floating island. The robot started to descend quickly. Manic leaned over the side. His stomach did a flip.

"Anne! Don't give up! I will find you!" And, since this might be the last time Manic ever saw her, "I love you!" Manic shouted before they disappeared.

"I love you t-" It was cut off, and barely audible, but it raised Manic's spirit a tad from exhausted hopelessness.

His heart beat in his head as he watched it shoot off, knowing he could do nothing. Pain prickled his knees where he had thudded the ground. A drizzle was still present, drenching his already damp clothes, soaking his once neat hair. Tears flowed freely from his sapphire eyes, his fists still clutching delicate blades of grass. His vision was blurry as he sat there alone.

He was sure of the fact that one day he would find her, and save her. The 'operation' Metal Sonic spoke of could include the roboticizer, which meant Manic would have to-

Nevermind.

_She's gone, and after I was so mean to her. What if I never see her again? Our last conversation would be an argument. How can i live with myself if the last memory I have of us would be that?_

_How can I ever forgive myself?_

*Line*

"Just one more push!" Knuckles reported excitedly. "I can see the head!"

"Good," Sonic muttered, "'cuz my hand can't take much more of this."

Blaze and Silver crept in amongst the commotion, Blaze flicking water off her tail. Shadow spun on them.

"And where were you two?" Shadow demanded. Blaze's face went blank.

"Uh.."

"We got lost, sir!" Silver exclaimed, wiping lipstick from his mouth. Shadow cocked an eyebrow, but turned to face Rouge as her scream peirced the air. Knuckles yelled in surprise. Sonic quietly died, looking at his throbbing hand. The bat's scream died, but as it did, a new one started, this time from a squirming infant in Knuckles arms. The echidna was gently rubbing it clean. Silver looked at the newborn with great interest.

"She's so red and wrinkly," Silver cooed. A vein stood out on Knuckles forehead.

"That's cause she's covered in blood, back up you idiot!" Knuckles muttered. Silver obeyed. Under Mr. Shizuka's careful instruction, Knuckles wrapped his daughter in a soft pink baby blanket. Her tiny cries and mews quieted as she was nuzzled against her mother's chest. Knuckles moved to look at his daughter's face. Rouge rested her head against his massive shoulder, and Knuckles shed the manliest tear.

"What are you going to name her?" Mr. Shizuka asked, leaning down to wipe up the stuff on the floor.

The couple studied her small face, the graceful features of her mother, her soft fur pearl in color. Her big ears twitched. She slept peacefully on her mother's bountiful chest, and Rouge knew then exactly what name would fit their darling baby girl.

"Juliet Pearl Nahuatl," the diamond bat whispered as she kidded her daughter softly on the forehead. "Jewels for short." Knuckles looked at his girlfriend, then they both looked down again.

"Welcome to the world," Knuckles said quietly.

"We love you," her parents said in unison. The newborn made a quiet noise with her new voicebox.

"Time of birth, 12:03 a.m. May 28th."

*Line*

"Anne, are you okay, sweetie?" someone asked, touching my shoulder softly. I lay on my side, facing the wall, letting salty water pool around my face.

"I'm fine," i said quietly, not wanting anyone to know I was crying. It failed miserably. Aleena's head entered my field of vision and her eyebrows slanted into a worried expression.

_"Anne! Don't give up! I will find you! __**I love you!**_"

Manic's last words echoed in my head. I would never give up. I would wait for him, because there was no way I could get out by myself at this point.

And, yes, I did love him, too.

I just hoped he had heard me,and that he had forgiven me for hiding a secret, because knowing he could be mad at me just tore me up inside.

And it hurt.

*Line*

Shadow was distracted from congratulating his friend on her new baby when Manic trudged in the door, flopping in a teary heap on the rug. Sonic saw this, too, and since he was no longer being used as a stress ball, both hedgehogs went over to investigate.

"Manic, what's wrong?" Sonic asked softly. Manic didn't respond right away, and for once, Sonic was patient.

"She's gone." Just two words, but they were dripping with sadness, That's all Manic said, choking on what he was going to say next. His eyes drooped.

"Who's gone?" Sonic inquired, and Shadow glared.

"Manic, where's Reens? Or Anne?" Shadow noticed Manic's arms around a white shawl, Ann'es shawl.

"They're gone. Metal took-" Manic curled in on himself. "I will find you," he muttered.

The three males sat there, before Sonic jumped up and ran from the house, one word tumbling from his lips.

"AMY!"

Jewels started to cry form being woken up, and Rouge started to cry, too.

"What was that?" Knuckles asked, his voice still calm.

'Anne and Reens were taken by Metal Sonic. Guess Faker's worried about Rose."

"That means Metal is here on the island?" Knuckles went back to whispering as Rouge got Jewels to stop crying. Mnic turned around.

"No, he left with them, and I'm ust a weak male who could do nothing to stop him," Manic said pitifully, laying on his back and clutching the white cloth tighter and wiping his eyes.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Don't worry about Mr. Mopey over there," Shadow assured.

The soft clunk of a door shutting echoed in the empty hall. Vanilla emerged, quietly stepping back a few steps before walking into the main room, stopping abruptly as she saw the scene.

'oh, my," Vanilla let her hand fall. "It seems like I've missed quite a lot."

"yeah," Cream stood next to Tails in the kitchen doorway. "Congratulation, Rouge and Knuckles!" The couple nodded.

"Don't any of you understand?" Manic asked, now sitting criss-cross on the rug, his hands on his knees and elbows up. He frowned.

"Of course-" Vanilla was about to have a face-palm moment, but was interrupted.

"They're gone, and we have to save them," Manic glowered. Shadow strode over to him and stood so that he blocked Manic from the view of the others.

"I don't know what's wrong with you, but we can't do anything right now. Look around you. We're all exhausted, and you are broken, but we need to wait," Shadow bent down. Their eyes met. "What would Anne say if she saw you like this?"

Manic opened his mouth to retort, anger distorting his kind face.

"Amy's gone!" Sonic burst, holding the royal scepter and dripping wet. "Mom is gone!" The only time Sonic had seen Sonic cry before this was when he had come back to find all three of his family members in a house where he had beckoned them after not seeing them for five years.

"They've disappeared!"

**To be continued in _War..._**


End file.
